Mamet’s Race

A little post-Thanksgiving trip to New York and we caught David Mamet’s new play Race. We liked it, though it’s not quite as snappy as Mamet can be at his best. It’s certainly as complicated as Mamet can be. A tight story told with four actors in a law office played by James Spader, David Allen Grier, Kelly Washington, and Richard Thomas. The story is really a debate among three lawyers (Spader, Grier, Washington) about how to play the case of their rich guy client Thomas accused of the rape of a young black woman.

Is he guilty? Not guilty? As you might expect, the usual lawyer rationale is at work. Who cares? Our job, should we choose to take it is to defend our client. But, as you also might surmise, there’s a lot more going on here as the two black lawyers, Grier and Washington, start circling each other regarding the attitude of each toward their client, and Spader seems at first to concentrate on the case. And yet, for all his efforts at getting above the emotional issues and staying above the fray, Spader’s character is vulnerable to the distorting mirror of race in American society.

New York is a great town setting for Race — both for the play and the audience. In New York there are people of every color and every class jostling on the street and interacting in a variety of relationships — not to mention language.