The Niceties

The Niceties is a sharply relevant play by Eleanor Burgess now in it’s final performances at Portland Stage Company. Thanks to a busy April, I didn’t see it til Friday night. I gathered a group of educators, mostly at the college level, to see the train wreck that transpires between a white female history professor at an elite university and her black student.

When I read the script, I knew it would be one of the most compelling productions of the current season. The dialogue is fast-paced and urgent. The divides are many: of race, age, privilege, class. While gender may unite them, it just. does. not.

Here are the sketches I did, over a year ago.

All of the action takes place in the professor’s office, lined with books. I tried working the title into a wall of books, framed by iconic columns, a symbol that can double for academia and history.

Here I suggested the two actors, Zoe, the student with her phone next to Janine, the professor with her prestigious Chair.

Global issues suggested in this one. Have you been to Paris? Or Ferguson?

I looked at a lot of collegiate crests…

In this idea, I wanted to convey the imbalance of power, in which the white professor lords her knowledge over the black student, with title and credits on a piece of notebook paper.

I also tried a similar idea without figures. Could the weighty chair versus the small folding one suggest the imbalance between the student and professor?

I went back to figures, but within the bubble of academia. Their space is built of books. Finding evidence for an argument about the American Revolution within publications that leave out black authors is the tipping point for Zoe.

This one combines elements from several of the previous sketches, with the two women in an environment of  book stacks. The volumes and volumes of “knowledge” are the very crux of the conflict: whose history written by whom? The professor stands, looking down on the student, who looks at her phone.

This one got the nod. For the final illustration, I drew on orange paper to invoke the inflammatory direction that the academic encounter takes. The story happens during the spring of 2016, when Pantsuit Nation was a thing, so I gave the professor a Hillary-ish profile.

With Marty’s help, the typography had a collegiate look.

The set design by Judy Gailen is lined with towers of books and other props that detail the character’s status.

Zoe is played with such authentic force by Alexis Green that your heart is breaking the entire time.  Susan Knight captures the condescension of Janine with calculating precision. Not a single beat or breath is missed; when all is done, the enormity of misunderstanding leaves you devastated. And ready to talk about it all night.

Note to educators: students demand more truth and respect from their teachers than they are getting. The academic disdain for the internet gets dusted off here, and with good reason. The Niceties hits many nerves on many levels. Bravo to the playwright, and to all the players for bringing a daring clash of intelligent women to life.

Only one performance left. Don’t miss it.