Playwright: Thomas Gibbons
At: Northlight Theatre at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie
Phone: ( 847 ) 673-1879; $32-$48
Runs through: March 6
Who'd have thought an art museum could raise such a ruckus as it does in Thomas Gibbons' play? The ruckus begins before the start of our story, when Alfred Morris defied social conventions of his time by building a private gallery to house his collection of impressionist paintings and displaying his Renoirs, Cézannes and Modiglianis alongside African masks, in order to illustrate the cross-cultural influences—a goal he pursued to the end, bequeathing curatorship of his treasures to a nearby Negro college.
Nearly a century later, Sterling North, the museum's new administrator, discovers more of Morris' African acquisitions, for years secured in storage, and proposes to exhibit them with the rest. The retainers of the Morris Foundation—notably, Paul Barrow, its Director of Education—protest these changes on grounds of their violating the terms of the founder's will. And because North is African-American and Barrow, Caucasian, misunderstandings arise, rhetoric escalates and soon what began as an aesthetic dispute becomes a racial conflict.
In the hands of a playwright content to wallow in ripped-from-the-headlines bathos, this premise could get VERY stupid VERY quickly. But though Permanent Collection's plot is based in real-life events, author Gibbons and director Lisa Portes play no favorites in presenting the dilemma raised by the contending factions. Both men are portrayed as more emotionally invested in their missions than they may be aware. The media, that ever-popular villain, has its say as well ( 'People always blame the reporter when their own words get them into trouble' shrugs a journalist ) . We even have the curmudgeonly Morris, himself, speaking from beyond the grave.
Northlight Theatre's production is blessed with actors well up to the challenge of this intelligent and articulate material. Harry J. Lennix and Lawrence MacGowan argue North and Barrow's respective opinions without ever slipping into melodramatic posturing, on the one hand, or talking-heads editorializing, on the other. Molly Glynn's inquisitive newshound and Shané Williams' naive subordinate likewise avoid shallow stereotypes with ease and elegance. The depth of involvement engendered by their commitment to their characters' warring convictions could be measured on opening night by the low murmurs of assent or skepticism issuing from various quarters of the ethnically mixed audience.