Playwright Thomas Bradshaw knows his dark comedy Mary, now in the midst of its world premiere run at the Goodman Theatre, is bound to prompt controversy. And that's largely due to the fact that Bradshaw strategically pushes the buttons of racism and homophobia in unexpected patterns in Mary.
"The play is based upon a true story," said Bradshaw during a telephone interview. Bradshaw has a gay opera singer friend who recounted his own horror at visiting his boyfriend's family in Southern Maryland back in 1983, where the parents casually referred to their African-American maid as "nigger Mary."
"Mary had been in the boyfriend's family for hundreds of years," Bradshaw said. "Mary's family officially became domestic servants after slavery ended."
This decidedly non-politically correct story proved to be the starting point for Bradshaw's Mary, which follows the gay couple Jonathan and David and their dealings with David's Southern family starting in 1983. But Bradshaw throws in a few dramatic and character-defining curves into the mix.
"When stories like this are told, it's often too easy to say here are the good guys and here are the bad guys," Bradshaw said. "People watching the play are going to assume that Mary is the character they should identify with or should be rooting for. I wanted to make the play more complicated than that because life is much more complicated than the clear morality that is often presented onstage and in movies."
Indeed, another major issue that Bradshaw explores in Mary is the frequently homophobic views held by people in the African-American community. In the play, the church-going Mary and her husband, Elroy, take it upon themselves to try and teach the gay couple a Biblical lesson.
"The play clearly shows how different groups can seize the Bible to their own ends," Bradshaw said, noting how one minority group isn't necessarily going to sympathize with another. "That always seems to be the state of things to some extent that the very groups who are oppressed then turn around and oppress another group."
In just reading Bradshaw's play, it's easy to see a director take an exaggerated approach to the characters and their often fact-based dialogue. But Bradshaw clearly instructs in his play notes for directors not to do that.
"It's very important that everything be played absolutely straight," Bradshaw said, noting how it would be very easy to take an approach like out playwright Christopher Durang's satirical works. "That takes away from the power of the work and the power of the ideas being presented because it lets the audience off the hook immediately because they think, 'this is funny, we don't have to take this seriously.'"
In tackling such contentious issues of racism and homophobia in Mary, Bradshaw did find it somewhat amusing as he noticed an unspoken sense of relief from some administrative theatrical workers when they first realized that the play was written by an African American at readings for the play. But Bradshaw wants audiences to focus on what he has written instead finding out all the personal particulars of his life.
"I'm much more interested in sparking a dialogue and letting the audience really have to think about what they just saw and sifting through the material themselves and coming to their own conclusions instead of telling them what to think," Bradshaw said. "What's being shown on stage, some of it is funny, but these are realities of our world and it's not a joke."
Mary continues until March 6 in the Owen Theatre space of the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn. Tickets are $10-$42; call 312-443-3800 or visit www.goodmantheatre.org .
Legalized prostitution
Another world-premiere drama deliberately courting controversy in the Windy City is Aline Lathrop's Bordello at Chicago Dramatists (see review in this issue).
Set at a state-sanctioned brothel in Nevada, Bordello offers playwright Lathrop the chance to question what drives women to prostitution sans the illegal criminal aspect if it were set elsewhere in the United States.
"It's often identified as a victim-less crime," said Kyra Morris a self-identified bisexual actress who plays the part of Godiva, a married ex-military woman who falls into this line of work in order to help pay bills in Bordello.
"But the playwright is also examining whether or not it does damage to a women, or if they're there because they're damaged," said Morris, who has learned quite a lot about legalized prostitution as due course from appearing in Bordello. "And what if they weren't damaged, what would they be doing and what have they done and what would they be capable of?"
Morris pointed out that many of the women in Bordello lack education and do the work as an "easy" way to pay bills.
"The question is, 'Am I harming myself, or am I in control?'" said Morris, who also identifies herself as "sex positive." "A lot of the controversy surrounding this type of employment is the taboo of sex to begin with, and especially sex with multiple partners."
Speaking of multiple partners, Lathrop in Bordello doesn't shy away from the fact that many women sex workers often perform together to fulfill heterosexual male fantasies about lesbians.
"A lot of clients expect prostitutes to have sex with each other and if you're one of the girls, a lot of times that's a bump up in pay," Morris said. "The issues of lesbianism or what constitutes a lesbian does bring up the subject of how does sex interfere with or construct my identity and does it have to do either of those things."
Bordello continues until March 6 at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago. Tickets are $15-$32. Call 312-633-0630 or visit www.chicagodramatists.org . (Also, see the review on page 20.)
