Beverly Frasier is obsessing over the details of her mother's birthday party when the phone rings.
It's her brother; he can't make it.
Perfect.
Her husband is out running errands, and her sister can't be bothered to help. Overwhelmed by it all, Beverly faints.
And then "Fairview," the 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Jackie Sibblies Drury that Pima Community College is mounting April 23-May 3, evolves into something that will make many in the audience feel uncomfortable.
That's the point.
This is not a story about a middle-class African-American family gathering; it's a statement about how white America views them.
White actors stand behind the Frasier family during a scene in Pima Community College's production of Jackie Sibblies Drury's "Fairview." From left, Tanisha Ray, Matthew King, Adonis Spangle, Justin Warren, Debora Hamuli, V Vick, Peace Tenge, Kai Piers, Marcus Green and Kaidrey Lester.
In the second act, Drury introduces a group of white people surveilling the Frasiers, adding their two cents to what's unfolding and debating what race they would prefer if they weren't white.
It's a stark example of "white gazing" — looking at life through a white lens and judging every action by people of color through the white experience.
But Drury takes that one step further in the third act, replacing the Black characters except Beverly's daughter Keisha with the white characters.
As each takes their place as a member of her family, Keisha becomes more visibly uncomfortable until she breaks the fourth wall to deliver Drury's overriding message:
Black people need to tell their own stories while white people need to be listeners.
Pima is mounting the work in its intimate Black Box Theatre at the West Campus Center for the Arts, 2202 W. Anklam Road, which will undoubtedly add to the impact of Drury's message.
Pima Theater Program brought in the award-winning playwright and director Esther Almazán, a Tucson native of Yaqui descent, to direct the production, with Tanisha Ray as assistant director and dramaturg.
“Fairview” premiered off-Broadway at the Soho Repertory Theater in 2018 and has been produced by a number of companies since including in London.
The Nerds of Color praised the avant-garde play for its "intriguing and twisty premise" while the Harvard Crimson called it "a creative expression of the Black experience in white-dominated spaces and forthright critique of the white gaze."
"What begins as a typical family drama in a living room set transforms into a meta-level deconstruction of a white perspective in real time," the Crimson opined, calling the play "provocative" and saying it "pulls the audience into an uncomfortable but inescapable trance at the unpredictable acts that occur on stage."
Performances will be at 7 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays with a special ASL performances on May 1. Tickets are $15, $10 for students, seniors and military through eventbrite.com. PCC students get one free ticket.
