Black Santa: A Timely And Thoughtful Start To The Season

By Mariah Reed

City Theatre’s Black Santa peels the shiny veneer off the holiday season with its clever examination of unconscious racial bias present in America’s cultural traditions.  Initially, upon entering the theater, one is uplifted by the festive atmosphere.  Large, glimmering snowflakes are suspended from the ceiling and huge, illuminated candy canes and gifts sparkle near the audience.  Lively holiday tunes complete the effect. But fasten your seat belts, folks, for things are about to get ugly.

The action begins with enthusiastic third-grade teacher Patrice reading The Night Before Christmas to her students.  She concludes by cheerfully asking students to mention something they’d like to share with others about the holiday.  Cue the blackout and we are left in suspense, wondering what responses may have been articulated.

When the lights rise once again, we discover a breathless Patrice on her cellphone, entering the faculty lounge and sharing her hopes of an imminent promotion as Assistant Principal.  Before long, her colleagues enter the space and excitedly discuss the upcoming season.  The promise of upcoming festivities creates a fervor that is infectious.  The buoyant tone is instantly squashed when newly minted principal Ward burst into the room and confronts Patrice about one of her students.  Apparently, a student named Sharifa responded to Patrice’s prompt to share Christmas facts by announcing that Santa is a black man from Detroit.

A dramatic debate from the educators ensues and escalates quickly.  Patrice is surprised by the passionate disapproval exhibited by her white peers when they insist this situation is precarious for the school.  The picture of clueless white privilege, Principal Ward sputters her displeasure, insisting that the exclusive private school’s students were hysterically upset by the concept of a black Santa.  She interrogates Patrice to dig up evidence of subversion in young Sharifa, going so far as to suggest the child’s actions may be in part due to her reading material and financial status.  Were it not for current efforts in this country to censor reading material and black history teachings in our schools, this would be comical.  But one feels a chill reverberate down one’s spine when white teacher Frank bemoans the situation, stating that this “self-expression is causing a distraction.”

Ward puts Patrice, a black teacher, in charge of a committee that must create a campaign to cement the image of Santa as a white man.  Rita Cole as Patrice Patterson brilliantly portrays a woman torn between her inner outrage and forced outer civility.  No stranger to systemic racism, Patrice must negotiate maintaining her self-respect while pleasing Ward and the school’s Board of Directors so that she will be considered for the desired promotion.  Cole’s ability to embody both Patrice’s vulnerability and inner strength is powerfully moving. It makes painfully clear the struggle so many black Americans face in a country that is proving to be far less advanced in civil rights protections than one would hope.

Patrice’s appointed co-leader of the committee is Gabriel Spencer, deftly played by Phillip Andrew Santiago.  As he and Patrice discuss the various forms of racism and bias they face daily, Gabriel notes that Black Americans are not the only marginalized group experiencing discrimination in the United States.  He shares his experience of being profiled by the police because he is a bi-racial, Muslim, gay man.

Santiago’s Gabriel is the picture of raw frustration.  The oppressiveness his character encounters daily feels real; discontent simmering constantly below the surface and coloring his defensive responses throughout the play.  Yet Gabriel and Patrice soldier on, attempting to find a way to complete their assigned responsibilities while maintaining a shred of self-respect.  In a meeting designed to brainstorm images for posters, things get weird when the two begin to “spitball” marketing ideas.  In a bizarre and seemingly random exercise they prance about like reindeer and sing a Christmas carol roulette.  Long story short, the effort to finalize a plan is abandoned as they were never truly committed to it in the first place.

The white characters, Principal Ward and teachers Frank and Sydney, exhibit colossal ignorance and insensitivity as they embrace this campaign to reject the image of Santa as a black man. In one particularly inspired moment, Patrice shouts that the problem isn’t that Santa is white but that he can only be white. But her colleagues (Gabriel excepted) blankly stare at her without comprehension or care.  When the media is alerted to the school’s efforts to silence Sharifa and suppress unrest, Principal Ward grows increasingly anxious about the school’s image and suggests suspending the student and issuing a “lockdown” of the school.

Pressure mounts, and the events prove to be a catalyst forcing everyone to lay bare their true beliefs and act accordingly.

Niki Fridh creates a Principal Ward that is appropriately inflexible and brittle, with touches of deep insecurity that become evident when she has a near breakdown.  Jeff Burleson’s Frank makes one squirm with discomfort as he self-righteously hurls comments that clearly convey a man with little respect or understanding of marginalized communities.  But then there is an unexpected hint of painful self-awareness towards the end of the play that is deeply affecting.  Kimmie Harvey’s Sydney is a cloyingly sweet and vapid novice who cannot veer from her people-pleasing ways long enough to consider the stakes of what is happening.  And Robert L. Strain as Patrice’s father Johnnie Lee is the perfect blend of proud father and protective protester, establishing a connection with his onstage daughter that feels credible and sincere.

The effective set, created by MNM Builds, is an open playing area with audience members on two sides of the forestage.  Most of the action takes place in the faculty lounge downstage, complete with kitchen, dining tables, and a couch. Under the talented hands of director Margaret Ledford, it is the perfect composition for lively blocking that keeps the action moving forward engagingly.  She also expertly manages the dramatic tension so that initially we are lulled into a false sense of lightness and holiday joy. But as events unfold, the cracks in pretense are revealed and unconscious bias exposed.  At one point, a white teacher dressed as (white) Santa ironically proclaims, “May all your Christmases be White!”  In another cringe-worthy moment a white teacher suggests the black Santa image isn’t needed to validate the black experience.  “That’s why we have Kwanzaa,” he insists.

In her program notes, director Ledford states that Black Santa is an “incisive look at ourselves, our social structures, and our institutions.”  It is also an important play that lays bare how hurtful racism and unconscious bias can be, and how far we must go as a country to make that understood.

Black Santa,  by Aaron Mays from City Theatre playing  the Carnival Studio Theater in the Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; performances 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Through Sunday, Dec. 22. Tickets $56 and $61; VIP experience for an additional $30 includes a drink, up-front seating and a gift bag; a portion of the proceeds benefit City Theatre’s arts education initiatives. Call 305-949-6722 or visit arschtcenter.org