Berkshire on Stage

A play that opens on the image of an old photograph of an enslaved Black woman nursing a White infant promises a provocative, no-holds-barred meditation on racism and sexism. This is exactly how Confederates opens at the Rep, as one of our two lead characters speaks passionately about depictions of racism in historical documents, in pop culture, and finally in a targeted attempt to harass her. The Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York has brought the NY Capital Region many hard-hitting plays about the Black experience, and Dominique Morisseau’s Confederates is no exception. Some aspects of Morisseau’s script hit hard, while others fall a bit flat, but BTTUNY does an overall admirable job of bringing the show to life and honoring its intersectional complexities.

Sandra is a Black professor at a predominantly White college who has had a harassing image of her face photoshopped on a slave woman posted to her door. As she navigates her relationships with her students and her one other colleague of color, she struggles to imagine who would have posted the image to her door and what the intended message was. In a secondary plotline, an enslaved woman named Sara in the 19th Century American South aids her rebel soldier brother and, with the help of the plantation owner’s abolitionist daughter, passes him information on Confederate troops.

As these two protagonists find their own power, they are joined by supporting actors who play parallel roles in the lives of Sara and Sandra. Gabriel Fabian plays a pair of passionate young Black men fighting for freedom while their bias against women occasionally slips through the cracks. Laura Graver plays a pair of well-meaning but out-of-touch white women with (perhaps misplaced) reverence for their respective protagonist. And Monet Thompson-Young plays a pair of Black women whose strategies for how they navigate their place in the world are diametrically opposed to the protagonists whom they play opposite. These secondary characters may sound like common tropes in modern portrayals of the Black female experience, and indeed they are, but they are played sincerely and engagingly by Fabian, Graver, and Thompson-Young so they appear to have some depth even while Dominique Morisseau’s satire shines through. (Graver in particular has a keen sense of the satire her characters bring to the show and is, therefore, the best comic relief in the show.)

The characters’ costumes and hair, designed by Sheilah London-Miller, are excellent visual cues for not only the changing time and place of the play but also the characters’ personalities. The set and props, designed respectively by David Zwierankin and Tyler Ki-Re West are also excellently designed with small details that bring the audience not only to the changing times, but also the different spaces that the two protagonists inhabit. While these details are excellent, I wish the stage manager and running crew had managed to smooth out and quicken the scene transitions. The transitions from scene to scene tend to drag and, in doing so, break the audience’s engagement with what is otherwise a riveting production.

The protagonists of Sandra and Sara are skillfully portrayed by Dalina Quinones and Miekayla P. Pierre respectively. Quinones in particular tackles big ideas and big feelings through a character that strives to maintain professionalism even as she battles racism and breaks through the glass ceiling. But while both protagonists fight both overt and unconscious bias in their lives, I have trouble wrapping my head around the stories of a successful minority professor and an enslaved woman on a plantation as having all that much in common. Even as they deal with similar personalities in their lives, their stories are separated not only by one-hundred and sixty-some years, emancipation, affirmative action, and Title IX, but also by a vast difference in economic class and social capital. I do believe it was Morisseau’s intention to show that even after the abolition of slavery and a myriad of laws and court cases addressing the oppression of women and racial minorities, Black women still face discrimination that is rooted in America’s ugly legacies of slavery, racism, and sexism. However, the playwright presents two characters as parallel when their experiences are anything but, and ultimately the connection between the two characters falls flat.

Nevertheless, I can still recommend this play about two drastically different women living drastically different lives in unfortunately similar worlds. It is well-acted, well-staged, thought provoking, and humorous. Anyone looking for a tidy and self-contained message about oppression in America will not find any such thing in Confederates. But forgiving theatergoers looking for a show that will make them think about oppression even while making them laugh at the absurdities of social injustice will be delighted by BTTUNY’s current production.

Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York presents Confederates by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Michael A. Lake, runs from February 5-15, at the Rep, 251 North Pearl Street Albany, NY 12207. Assistant directed by Wade Hanley. Produced by Jean-Remy Monnay and Mariah Sanford-White. Cast: Dalina Quinones as Sandra, Miekayla P. Pierre as Sara, Gabriel Fabian as Abner/Malik, Laura Graver as Missy Sue/Candice, and Monet Thompson-Young as Luanne/Jade. Stage managed by Shaya Reyes. Set design by David Zwierankin. Costumes, hair, and make-up design by Sheilah London-Miller. Properties design by Tyler Ki-Re West. Lighting design by M Pomazal-Flanders. Sound design by Chad Reid.

Performance dates are Thursday-Sunday, February 5-15. Thursday and Friday curtains are at 7:30pm; Saturday and Sunday curtains are at 4pm. Tickets are $27.50; senior tickets are $19.50; student tickets are $12. Runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. Contains depictions of slavery, racism, harassment, and brief sexual scenarios. Recommended for ages 16+ Tickets are available online at https://attherep.org/, by phone at 518-346-6204, or at the door for any performance. For more information, visit https://www.blacktheatretroupeupstateny.org/, email BTTUNY518@gmail.com, or call 518-833-2621.