Race Card

Sig Bokalders

Stephens (left) and Duncan (McConnell at rear): How do you get beneath rhetoric?

Details

Presented through March 4. Call 800-514-3837, or visit www.floridastage.org.

Florida Stage, Plaza Del Mar, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan

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More About

• Thomas Gibbons
• Austin Judge
• Ona Judge
• Allen Rosen
• Racial Issues

Florida Stage is in Manalapan, home of the superrich, and a lot of upper-crust white folks have season subscriptions. Throughout House's two-hour run, I felt sorry for the actors trying to peddle this stuff to the assembled elite. Surely, these latter-day robber barons have no need for absolution; surely, they've conquered their liberal guilt. I was wrong. Come curtain-call, House received the first standing ovation I've seen this season. I was confused for a moment, but then I wondered if the audience wasn't applauding Gibbons' writing or the brave men and women toiling to bring it to life. Were they applauding themselves, for being brave enough to watch black actors give them permission to be the friendly libertarians they were all along? This is what white America really wants: approval and forgiveness. But until it demands more than this hollow, painted-stage appeasement, white America certainly won't deserve it.