Brownie Points

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If difficult, awkward conversations are the medicine necessary to heal a racially wounded society, at least make them funny. Janece Shaffer’s dramedy does exactly that as five privileged Georgia wives accompany their daughters on a camping trip. When white group leader Ali sticks the two black moms on kitchen duty in their cabin, a succession of fractures begins. NBA housewife Nicole urges making the best of the situation, while surgeon Dierdre, on edge for reasons we later discover, seeks confrontation. With a storm conveniently keeping the three white and two black women inside (their daughters are bunked elsewhere, never seen), alliances grow and collapse among the quintet. These tempests could be a muddle were Shaffer’s characters not so precisely delineated. Brownie Points is, admittedly, more than a little schematic in its point-by-point revelation of each character’s hidden hang-ups. Thankfully, however, the women’s resentments feel fairly natural, and the play is full of anxious observations that ring true in our post-Obama age of polite, imperfect integration. MARGARET FRIEDMAN N.B.: Taproot hosts a special free panel discussion, called “Neighbors and Strangers: Discussing Diversity and the Experience of Race in Seattle” on Monday, June 13, at 7 p.m.
Wednesdays-Sundays. Starts: May 18. Continues through June 18, 2011