Honkey @ Urban Stages

WARNING: If Easily Offended Please Keep Clear Of Urban Stage’s HONKEY!

In a matter of a hundred and five minutes Greg Kalleres manages to fit every racial slur and offensive comment into his new comedy Honkey (does the title give anything away?). Truly nothing goes unexplored and no boundary is left uncrossed as the audience is witness to a story of how to use racial profiling to sell basketball shoes. Multiple character story lines intertwine in the aftermath of a murder of a young black man that was inspired by a sneaker add put forth by Sky Shoes.

            The show surrounds around racism and the idea that everyone is a racist; if you think you are one - you are, if you think you’re not one - you are. No one is safe from this train of thought – quite literally everyone in this show is a racist. And to add to the ridiculous nature of this play, if everyone is a racist then there must be a “cure”. 

             LADIES AND GENTLEMAN – Introducing DRISCOTOL – the miracle “cure” to racism. But watch out, there are side effects.

            The show starts out with an advertisement for the new SkyMax 16 basketball shoes. A shout out goes to Catie Hevner (Triassic Parq) for the projections that provided an interesting look to the show; using a simple set and relying on these projections to really set the scenes. As we come into the shows “corporate America”, we are introduced to Thomas, played by Anthony Gaskins (A Little Journey), the designer of the shoes in the commercial. Gaskins was enjoyable to watch with a decent sense of comedic timing, yet in his portrayal of this character he would at times present a “black man voice” during which his diction became loose and any point being made was lost to the audience. We are also introduced to Davis, the CEO/former CEO of Sky Shoes, played by Phillip Callen (Hard Times: An American Musical). Davis, when faced with his own racism seems at ease with it (anything to sell a shoe), but as the play progresses Callen becomes progressively more uncomfortable with the black members of the cast. Callen’s character has his funny moments and provides a laugh in these awkward situations.

            As the play moves forward we find Peter, the writer of the SkyMax16 commercial and his fiancé Andie, played by Dave Droxler (The Man Who Laughs) and Danielle Faitelson (No Fear Shakespeare’s Richard III). Both actors add to the plays ridiculous and offensive track quite nicely. Peter, who is dealing with “white guilt”, begins to see a therapist and starts to unravel under the pressures of racism – making his path not always clear, but very funny, while Andie, whose dialogue is a times confused but provides a ditzy, naïve humor, begins to have an affair with Thomas.

            And then of course there is the therapist Emilia, played by Arie Bianca Thompson. Described as a black girl embracing her whiteness, Thompson at first seems surrounded by this world without actually being invested in it. However as the play progresses we find that she is in fact one of the biggest racists in the show. And how does she deal with this? Driscotol of course!

            Dr. Driscoll, played by Scott Barrow (33 Variations), has found the cure to racism in his magic pill Driscotol, which Thompson’s, Callen’s, and Droxler’s characters all begin taking. Probably the shining moments in this play are the hallucinations that ensue as a side-effect of this drug. In terms of Callen, Davis is subjected to judgment by Frederick Douglas, although apparently Davis feels that it is appropriate to have Mr. Douglas speak in “gangster” terms. Douglas becomes the stereotypical gangster. This interaction is extremely offensive, but that stops no one from laughing. And then of course what would a play about racism and basketball shoes be without Abraham Lincoln? Think I’m kidding, I’m not. This gloriously ridiculous show not only provides one historical figure but two. And just to add a cherry onto this sundae it appears that Mr. Kalleres decided if Fredrick Douglas was going to be a gangster, Abraham Lincoln was going to be a pervert because it’s an obvious choice.

            All in all this show was hysterical and truly enjoyable to watch. However if the point was to get across some higher purpose of equality or serious message of racism then they need to try again.