Skip to main contentRebecca Gilman's Spinning into Butter is one of the bravest plays seen in America in years. It's that rare creature in this country: a play of ideas. In cities that have hosted productions, heated discussions have erupted around the piece's primary themes: the institutionalization of racism in American society, its indelibility on white consciences, and the hypocrisy in many white liberal attempts to ameliorate the damage.
Gilman sets the action in a predominately white liberal-arts college in Vermont. Sarah Daniels, a young, white dean of students who has a background in working with black college students, finds herself in the center of a crisis when one of the few black students on campus begins receiving threatening, racist notes, followed by rocks thrown through his window. The entire liberal faculty is thrown into righteous panic and commences to patronizingly counsel away at the problem, only to cause more havoc among the non-white students. What the incident reveals about the intelligent and sympathetic Sarah, the college and the perpetrator of the crimes bores to the core of what's rotten in America.
Director Karin Magaldi-Unger's production boldly enters this national arena reduced to a dean's office with a quick pace and intelligence. To play Sarah, Magaldi-Unger has cast Laura Smith, who grows in talent and assurance with each new role. Smith ably locates the qualities in Sarah that make her immediately likable, so much so that when Sarah finally unveils some of her own racial views, the shock is palpable in the audience. Confident and committed, Smith's performance is one of the best this season, though it's briefly marred by some cheap comedy bits (hitting her head Lucy-like under a desk or mimicking another character's line with a mocking child's tone).
Bob McKeehen has some good moments as Professor Ross Collins, though he seems physically uncomfortable on stage, often acting with his arms hugged around his chest. The deans of Janne Black and Tim Hill are still under construction, though each has fine moments. Jason Myers and Francisco Garcia put in excellent work in the roles of students, as does Ken Colburn as the campus security guard, though this role has been rightfully criticized for being too idealized (a saintly American Everyman) in a play that disdains idealization.
There's also been criticism that Gilman's play, in its own fashion, represents the very Anglocentric worldview that the playwright excoriates. It is a play with whites talking to a hypothetical white audience (easily imagined in the City of Lilies). But, sometimes, criticism from "within" can have more impact than from elsewhere. This play proves that.
This strong and important production also serves as the company inauguration of CoHo Productions' new theater. Gary (Co)le and Robert (Ho)lden have striven mightily to built a base in Northwest and have succeeded in creating one of the finest and most versatile black boxes in the city. Constructed to create two levels of playing area within an intimate space, the new CoHo Theater hits a new mark (pun intended) for theatrical venues in Portland.
CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 220-2646. 8 pm Thursdays- Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Nov. 24. $13 (students)-$15.
"In all the relations of life and death, we are met by the color line."
WWeek 2015