Theater review: 'Neighbors' at the Matrix Theatre

Just when you thought beer summits were so 2009, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ bracing satire “Neighbors,” now at the Matrix Theatre, turns up to mess with your lazy liberal self.

Call it Stepford meets Stepin Fetchit: Richard (Derek Webster), an African American adjunct classics professor, is playing by all the rules. He lives a tidy life in a bland suburb with his pretty white wife (Julia Campbell) and daughter, Melody (Rachae Thomas). Politely gunning for a full-time position at the local university, Richard’s aspirational focus is shattered by his new neighbors, the Crows, a tumble of racist tropes in (literal) black-face: kerchief-headed Mammy (Baadja-Lyne), top-hatted Zip Coon (Leith Burke), nappy-headed Topsy (Daniele Watts) and thuggish Sambo (Keith Arthur Bolden). When Melody starts hanging out with the Crows’ shy, youngest son, Jim (James Edward Shippy), Richard’s fantasy of thriving in a post-racial universe starts to collapse.  

Part deconstructed minstrel show, part family drama and a sharp retelling of Euripides’ “Iphigenia at Aulis,” Jacobs-Jenkins’ tragic farce has more energy and ideas than half a dozen anodyne “issue” plays that pass for contemporary drama on L.A. stages. Director Nataki Garrett achieves an impressive unity of tone in a show that veers from pantomime to dance numbers to realism. The cast punches up the stylized elements without ever losing its humanity: Burke’s Zip finds an eerie intimacy with Campbell’s frazzled housewife, while Baadja-Lyne makes sampling her own breast milk or corralling her unruly children all part of a day’s work. 

Ayana Cahrr’s vivid choreography showcases the talented Watts, whose every disturbing gesture evokes an obscene intersection of racism and sexuality, while Naila Aladin Sanders’ costumes spin the old stereotypes with tremendous wit: note Zip’s watermelon-patterned cravat, or Sambo’s enormous fake genitalia. Jacob-Jenkins knows that rage plays best as savage humor, and he takes us to excruciatingly awkward places -- and then leaves us to fend for ourselves. 

The play’s narrative chases its own tail, but maybe that’s in the nature of the subject. Race is a mirage; the closer you try to get to it, the more elusive truth becomes. Messy, bold, desperately funny and deeply felt: “Neighbors” is worth getting to know.

-- Charlotte Stoudt

“Neighbors”: The Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., Hollywood. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Ends Oct. 24. $25. Contact: (323) 960-7774 or www.plays411.com/neighbors. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes. 

Photo: Julia Campbell and Derek Webster in 'Neighbors' at the Matrix Theatre. Credit: I.C. Rapoport.

Comments

[Donald Frazell]

Sounds like an episode of Boondocks to me. And this is obviously Toms family above. The neighbors are the kids and grandpa, plus perhaps their Naawlins cousins who showed up after the flood. My wife thinks my son is Riley, certainly looked like him when young and with braids, but i think he is more Huey, got that simmering anger at stupidity, like me i am told
One of the best shows on TV, most are comedies. Art is more a tragedy now, ever the more so when it tries to be funny and profound.

art collegia delenda est

[Former Ovation Voter]

Walked out of this one. Both my friend and I, actors and long time theater lovers, were so disgusted by this gutter tripe we walked out. It's trying so hard to be satirical but it can't get past it's overblown, offensive stereotypes. I'd give them credit for trying but instead, if you want to see something that talks about race intelligently and can inspire and move you, go see "Break The Whip" at the Ivy Substation in Culver City. It's directed superbly by Tim Robbins of the Actor's Gang and should be on everyone's must see list. It's certainly my top 10 of all time plays I've seen. Rarely do you see theater that's been workshopped for so long and a huge ensemble that is so incredibly tight short of going to see a Cirque show. Skip this, go directly to Goldstar and see "Break The Whip". ;)

[Baadja]

You know no man's journey until you've traveled his path.

It is so sad when some people refuse to see the truth and those are the same people who err when retelling it. This play was about and still is about racism. Unfortunately most people couldn't get past the blackface. The parodies, coonery and buffoonery were developed as survival tactic.

It is not always about the audience being entertained sometimes you are going to have to think, which has been lacking in most of LA Theatre Productions. When people are uncomfortable and unwilling to see what is revealed as the plain truth, just may be their way of not wanting to address it they don't have the balls to challenge it. Some research on things you may not understand could help you when you are in a mind to criticize what has been and still is a crucial problem not only in entertainment but in this here United States of America.

If being comfortable is what you seek, then stay away from anything or anyone that points out the flaws of human beings where the truth is hard to see and take.

This show had several talk backs which is a rarity in theatre where people could come and express just what was on their minds, even the writer flew in from Germany to address many questions.

Instead of just walking out, stay to the end then you'd really have fodder to complain, rethink or whatever it is former Ovation Voter people do. Not all things are "intelligently done" for your benefit. Keep recommending safe theatre productions to keep your mind free.