There wasn't the audience drama described above, or in Sara Holdren's review. Instead, it was all very organized and civilized and, in my view, unearned. (It was a predominantly white, older audience.) Monique Robinson, as Keisa, does a fine job giving the speech that calls white audience members up to the stage. But Fairview just wasn't effective enough to make me, a white male, feel uncomfortable enough - and I was on the stage at the end, squinting at the lights to follow Robinson as she walked through the audience. (Squinting into the lights, while sitting at one of the "dining room" chairs, was actually the play's most disquieting effect.)
The first act is clearly fake, though well-acted and unsettling in the obvious sense that something isn't quite right - and the audience is waiting for the play to take a left turn. The musical shifts play a role in this, as does a family dance routine that felt more unsettling to me than the over-the-top material that follows.
The second act, a silent replay of the first with white characters having a cluelessly racist conversation, is a bore - in part because only infrequently is there a connection between what we're hearing and what we're seeing. The "white" characters' dialogue doesn't really bite, and when one woman starts talking about wishing she could be African-American if she had to change races because she loved her African-American nanny, it's pretty easy not to take the entire enterprise seriously.) The third act sees the white actors intrude onstage and chaos ensue. It's not a good sign when the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" gets played, and that wasn't surprising at all.
Playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury tosses out some interesting ideas, but it felt like she only really has a first act and an ending. The sense of danger described in the reviews and comments on the Soho Rep incarnation of the play was lacking in what I saw. My assumption is that the conclusion prompts some people to forgive the play's flaws, but I didn't think it made enough of a connection between that speech and the events beforehand.
