Notes On Theater - AMERICAN SON -- A Review by Patrick A. Bradford

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 Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale, and Jeremy Jordan in AMERICAN SON
 photo by Peter Cunningham

Notes on Theater

by Patrick A. Bradford

November 2018

"American Son" by Christopher Demos-Brown

The Booth Theater, New York City, Broadway

Limited Run through Jan. 27, 2019

(c) Patrick A. Bradford

Kerry Washington's impassioned performance as Kendra, a desperate Black mother looking for her just-turned-eighteen year old, African American son in a Miami police station about 2 am in the here and now is the primary reason to see Christopher Demos-Brown's play "American Son." Ms. Washington, known the world over as the problem busting politico Oliva Pope on the hit TV show "Scandal," is an exposed nerve for the 90 intermission-less minutes. She is riveting. As Kendra, a university professor of psychology, Ms. Washington must do battle with three men before finding the whereabouts of her missing son. 

First, there is the young, haplessly stupid neophyte Officer Paul Larkin (Jeremy Jordan). Larkin hides behind procedure, dismissing Kendra because he can. During the course of their conversation, we come to know much about Kendra's son, Jamal. He is bi-racial, with green eyes, six feet, two inches tall, cornrowed hair, and is dressed in baggy pants and a tee shirt. He went missing in his new Lexis, a birthday gift for a bright black young man with 1450 SATS, a private high school transcript with advanced physics and an acceptance to West Point. In other words, though Jamal, an accomplished young man who reflects the Arabic meaning of his name (beautiful), given to him by his mother, to the White world his black body means he is ever a target.

Second, there is Kendra's estranged White husband, Scott (a very good Steven Pasquale). Scott is an Irish, FBI agent who is thrilled that his son will attend West Point and carry on a family tradition of such service. However, four months earlier he moved out of the family home to play house with a Caucasian woman. He abandoned his Black wife and increasingly angstful Black son, spiraling  the latter into an angry identify crisis. Jamal feels that he must now serve as the "face of the race" to his almost wholly Caucasian high school where he is but one of three students of color. When Scott finds out that Jamal posted a potentially incendiary bumper sticker on the Lexis, he becomes furious with Kendra. Late in the play she explains that she was simply trying to deal with Jamal's emotional turmoil - she wanted him to remove the bumper sticker, but their relationship was fraught. Given a marriage of eighteen years, it is difficult to believe that Kendra and Scott have not spent countless hours discussing racial subjects, especially as concerns their son. Can a White father, even one who is an elite officer, have never considered the perils that face his African American son? Can Scott's successful efforts to provide a safe and middle class life for his wife and son truly blind him to the hazards of his son's blackness? I think not, and this is a weakness in a play that thrives on specificity, layered details, truth and naturalism. 

Third, there is the senior officer Lieutenant John Stokes (a superb Eugene Lee). He has the task of relaying the findings of the department's investigation of Jamal's whereabouts. And late in the play, he has a frank "race talk" with Kendra about bright young Black boys who should know how to conduct themselves in a world that is constantly gunning for them. Especially the police. Stokes is an incompletely drawn character, serving as Black counterpoint to Kendra's liberalism. Lee's veteran artistry greatly conceals the script's shortcomings.

"American Son" is one of many new plays dealing with race being presented by English speaking theaters during the past few seasons. Black Lives Matter has migrated to English speaking stages, with mixed results. On the high end are works like Jackie Sibblies  Drury's "Fairview" (SoHo Rep.) and at the other end are gross missteps like Brandon Jacob-Jenkins' "Appropriate" (Signature Theater). "American Son" falls somewhere in the middle. But it is rescued by a fine ensemble of players, and the atypically effective direction of Kenny Leon. And the production is greatly aided by the Costumes of Dede Ayite, Lighting of Peter Kaczorowski, and especially the metaphoric Scenic Design of Derek McLane, and haunting Sound Design of Peter Fitzgerald. These artists help provide a firm platform for Ms. Washington to give witness to the nightmare of Black motherhood in Trump's America. 

Thematically, "American Son" should be considered with Dominique Morisseau's "Pipeline." Each play attempts to dramatize the emotional turmoil of an African American mother who is terrified of losing her Black teenage son to state sponsored terror. Both plays give us bright, handsome, private school educated male teenagers. But respectability politics cannot turn Black skin white, nor alter the majority's view that young Black men are presumptively problematic. Especially an eighteen year old man, riding in a Lexis, late at night, in any American city, in the here and now, with two Black male friends, and a provocative bumper sticker. Neither the First Amendment, nor a mother's love can guarantee safety. And as "American Son" plays out its tragic conclusion, Ms. Washington gives us a full measure of suffering that is so private, we are embarrassed to witness it.

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