{"id":7731,"date":"2019-01-24T07:10:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T12:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7731"},"modified":"2019-02-14T07:41:59","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T12:41:59","slug":"the-niceties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7731","title":{"rendered":"The Niceties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The title of this political drama by playwright Eleanor Burgess<\/a> is ironic, as few\nniceties are demonstrated. Instead, the play, which had its opening night at\nPrinceton\u2019s McCarter Theatre<\/a> on January\n19 and runs through February 10, is an increasingly intense verbal duel between\nits two characters. As directed by Kimberly Senior, the tension never falters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White college history professor Janine (played by Lisa\nBanes) is trying to help her African American student Zoe (Jordan Boatman)\nimprove a paper that sets out a radical reinterpretation of the circumstances\nof the Revolutionary War. Janine isn\u2019t willing to accept websites as\nauthoritative sources, and Zoe isn\u2019t willing to accept the conventional sources\nthat ignore so much\u2014regarding the lives of the slaves, especially. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They both make cogent arguments, but their disagreement is\nin part a matter of frame of reference. Janine is arguing from the point of\nview of a political historian, to whom the thoughts and actions of leaders who\nhave left a paper trail constitute \u201chistory.\u201d Zoe is arguing for more of a social\nhistory approach that includes the lives of all people, even those who did not\nand could not write their own stories. To Zoe, a few mentions of these other\nexperiences won\u2019t do it; she wants a panoramic approach that seeks to\nunderstand it all. The argument over Zoe\u2019s essay soon turns personal and has\nsignificant fallout for them both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banes and Boatman have been doing this show since August,\nfirst at Boston\u2019s Huntington Theatre Company, then at The Manhattan Theatre\nClub, and they have polished their performances to a fine degree. Banes epitomizes\nthe condescension of the professor explaining how the world works, and Boatman\nthe arrogance of youth, convinced that even her most extreme positions are true\nand right. As a result, the characters they play excel in talking past each\nother, and if there\u2019s a profound message for society today, it\u2019s the need to\nlearn to listen, especially to people who view the world differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCarter Theatre is easily reached from New York by car or train (New Jersey Transit to the Princeton Junction station, then the shuttle bus into Princeton. The shuttle ends a short walk from the theater and the university\u2019s new arts district, as well as two innovative new restaurants. For tickets, call the box office at 609-258-2787 or visit the ticket office online<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Production photo: T. Charles Erickson <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title of this political drama by playwright Eleanor Burgess is ironic, as few niceties are demonstrated. Instead, the play, which had its opening night at Princeton\u2019s McCarter Theatre on January 19 and runs through February 10, is an increasingly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Niceties - a stunning play about the risks in our inability talk to each other about what's important.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[366,266,104,147],"tags":[1486,329,1487],"class_list":["post-7731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-history","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-eleanor-burgess","tag-mccarter-theatre","tag-the-niceties"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/The-Niceties.-Photo-by-T.-Charles-Erickson.jpg?fit=2400%2C1424&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-20H","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7733,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7731\/revisions\/7733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}