Rebecca Gilman’s play, Spinning into Butter, which was staged by the Eastcheap Theatre Collection last Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Bogaard Theatre, confronted racial issues with both power and grace.
The play takes place on the campus of a small liberal arts college in Belmont, Vermont, and centers on the reaction of both students and staff to a racial incident on campus. When Simon Brick, one of the few minority students on campus, receives two threatening letters tacked to his door, the administration decides that it must act in a decisive manner. Dean Sarah Daniels, played by Marion Graham, is especially concerned that the college respond in an appropriate way.
Amidst debates among the faculty about what should be done, and an adverse response by the campus to several forums sponsored by the administration, several racial issues are raised. The play focuses primarily on Dean Daniels, who despite her formal education about African Americans and racism, finds herself still struggling to overcome her own racist tendencies. Her process of recognizing and coming to terms with her struggle is one of the dominate themes that spoke most powerfully to the audience.
Gilman critiques white America’s shallow approach to racial issues. Through the characters in the play, she urges her audience to move beyond talking about the issues and examining them from a distance, to engaging them on a deeply personal level. She criticizes human tendency to simplify complex issues, reducing race to a category, a box to be checked on a standardized document. Gilman also warns against hasty solutions, which relieve a sense of guilt, but do little to work toward lasting racial harmony.
A talented cast brought Gilman’s issues to life on the stage. Marion Graham, who played Sarah Daniels, gave a powerful performance that drew the audience into the production. Other highlights included roles played by theatre professor Karen Barker, and NWC retiree Bill Lovelady, whose characters added both tension and humor to the play.
Although the slower, more intentional pace of the play, and the careful delivery of lines was at times distracting to the audience, it was also critical to the overall impact of the play. Despite its humorous moments and ironic quips, the play delivered a sombering message. Though Gilman leaves much of her play open to interpretation, she challenges her audience to confront and respond to racism on an individual level with both humility and honesty.
To read more about East Cheap Theatre Collection and its history, see page 5.
