Review: Provocative 'Fairview' Is Never What It Seems

Looking to be put on edge? Then head to "Fairview." Why that will likely happen will not be revealed here, since Jackie Sibblies Drury's extraordinary play pivots on the element of surprise throughout. Otherwise, this review would consist of one spoiler after another.

The play comes to Boston in a premiere by the SpeakEasy Stage Company with considerable baggage: it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2018 and was well-received in its initial New York run. But it exceeds expectations in its audacious use of racial memes and cliches given a surreal spin.

At first, "Fairview" seems innocuous enough in what plays like a very special episode of a sit-com called "The Frasiers," with a middle-class, African-American family at its center. As it begins, Beverly Frasier (Yewande Odetoyinbo), the family's mom, is fretting over preparations for her mother's birthday party. Everything must be right, from the table settings to the root vegetables, as she rants at her collected husband Dayton (Don Carter). The dysfunction rachets up a notch with the arrival of Jasmine (Lyndsay Allyn Cox), Beverly's fashionable and very opinionated sister; it is clear from their sassy retorts that their sibling rivalry is alive and thriving.

Enter Keisha (Victoria Omoregie), Beverly's teenage daughter, who asks her aunt to persuade her parents to approve her taking a gap year before college. Keisha also is in a same-sex relationship with her best friend, something that would likely upset her grandmother (or her mother). Plus, Beverly's brother, Tyrone, an ambitious lawyer, may or may not make the event due to flight delays.

Up to this point, "Fairview" is not unlike "Chicken & Biscuits," the recent comedy about an African-American family's stressful gathering that The Front Porch Collective produced recently. Tempers flare, alcohol flows, the birthday cake burns, the family dances, and Beverly's mother locks herself in the bathroom. It has everything a sit-com would need but a laugh track, which is, thankfully, supplied by the audience as they ease into the formulaic comedy.

Abruptly, the laugher stops, and discomfort sets in. While the ensuing dialogue is darkly funny, it is at the expense of the largely white audience as what has previously transpired is seen again in a surreal light. It is as if Carol Churchill collaborated with Tyler Perry. Churchill comes to mind in the way Sibblies Drury pumps up the absurdity, from hilarious props to racial memes, to make her points. And, like Churchill, Sibblies Drury uses audacious theatrical techniques do so. Nor, like both Churchill and Perry, is she afraid to use camp in the process, which make a potent, invigorating theatrical mix that appears to veer out of control. Something's not right, complains Keisha, and she is absolutely correct.

What is also absolutely correct is Pascale Florestal's production, which is a marvel in timing and execution. Her staging plays to the increasingly zany and dangerous narrative, keeping the audience on edge throughout its breathtakingly brief 100 minutes. But the less you know about the play, the better. For some after-viewing commentary, read this discussion about "Fairview" from the New York Times, published towards the end of the New York run. It is illuminating, but filled with spoilers.

What should be mentioned is the expert comedy timing of its ensemble and the splendid performances of Yewande Odetoyinbo, Lyndsay Allyn Cox, and Victoria Omoregie. Each is terrific with individual moments that shine. The bright, flat look of the Frasiers' home (by designer Erik D. Diaz) perfectly evokes a sit-com look, but Aja M. Jackson's lighting and James Cannon's sound design underplay the play's seeming normality at strategic moments. And kudos to Becca Jewett's costumes (those awesome leather pants for Ms. Cox deserve special mention.)

"Fairview" combusts with a wonderfully absurd theatricality that aims to disturb. That it succeeds so admirably is credit to Jackie Sibblies Drury's vision, deftly brought to life by the SpeakEasy. It is, though, better seen first, then discussed.

"Fairview" continues through March 11 at the Roberts Studio Theater, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. For more information, visit the SpeakEasy Stage website.