In Colorblind, Jessica Catalano (left) plays a doctor who spends a heckuva lot more time with one patient (Wallace Demarriá, right) than any real doctor on rounds in a hospital ever does.
Wallace Demarriá’s play Colorblind, about the leader of a Black empowerment movement, debuted in Los Angeles in 2013 and is just now having its New York premiere. During the time between the two productions, George Floyd’s murder and Donald Trump’s embrace of white nationalists have altered the conversation around racial issues in the United States. The only apparent tweak to the play, though, is a prologue in which Clinton Muhammad, a supposedly controversial activist, makes a speech claiming that Trump was elected because Americans freaked out over having a Black president.
Dana Harris tries hard, but her role, like the rest of Colorblind’s script, is not very well written.
This is neither a fresh nor provocative take. Viola Davis as Michelle Obama says as much in Showtime’s new First Lady miniseries, and that’s not the first time the idea has been expressed. Similarly, there are references in Colorblind to Muhammad calling white people the devil and making “by any means necessary”-type proclamations, but that kind of rhetoric goes back at least 60 years to Malcolm X. One follower of Clinton Muhammad says, “The man had the unadulterated gall to tell the most powerful entities in the world that they are lying, racist bigots.” Unadulterated gall? Don’t a bunch of people do that every day on Twitter?
Much of what Clinton Muhammad (played by Demarriá) says in Colorblind doesn’t sound all that revolutionary or incendiary:
“I love America. Therefore, I do not sit quietly as she performs injustice after injustice. I don't turn my head to her double standards that still exist hundreds of years after slavery and, yes, even after a Black president.”
“White people have preached hatred of my people for decades. Enslaved us, raped us, beat us and even murdered us—and you have the audacity to say I’m hateful.”
[After the police killing of an unarmed black man] “We refuse to be terrorized by your brute force for even a second longer!”
If only this were the sole problem with Colorblind . . .
However, almost everything about the production is amateurish. Lighting cues leave the audience sitting in the dark waiting at the top of each act. Blocking positions one actor in the audience’s sight line of another. Musical underscoring begins suddenly in the second half—and then is used sporadically and unsubtly. A couple of costume changes make no sense: Women put on dressy dresses, even though they’re not going anywhere dressy. And the program is rife with typos and with bios boasting how versatile, acclaimed and talented those involved in the show are. (What the program doesn’t mention is any previous theater work by either the director, Amanda White-Del Pino, or the costume and set designer, Ru.)
Wallace Demarriá as Clinton Muhammad and Dana Harris as his loyal aide and love interest Janet. Photographs by Kamal X.
All these things might just seem subpar if they occurred in a better play. But Demarriá’s script has many flaws beyond a main character who isn’t actually depicted as the charismatic firebrand everybody keeps saying he is. Its focus shifts among three different story lines—Muhammad’s “Minority Empowerment Movement,” his romantic relationships, and some nefarious action by his enemies—and serious conflicts are concluded curtly and implausibly. The cast of characters features a doctor, a TV pundit and two police officers, none of whom speak or comport themselves the way those professionals do. Dubious dialogue includes a person who’s been working with Muhammad for seven years saying, “After I first heard you speak, I remember thinking that I would follow you anywhere; I was completely blown away”—something she probably would have told him, like, seven years ago.
The second act is overrun with inexplicable plot points: Muhammad, not in a life-threatening condition, stays in the hospital more than six months and has no contact with those closest to him. Then comes the “twist” that gives the play its title—it’s unbelievable to the point of being laughable, and builds to a scene revolving around a white person’s cringy contention that “I have been judged as much if not more by my color than you have.”
That key role is portrayed without any personality by Jessica Catalano, one of several cast members with few or no other Off-Broadway credits. But it may not be their inexperience so much as their underwritten characters that are to blame for the generally vacant performances. Joseph Salvatore Knipper, with his bald head and Amish-style beard, is an odd choice physically for the Tucker Carlson stand-in he plays.
Gregory Warren and Hank Dennis, as two of Muhammad’s followers/lieutenants, manage to bring some vigor to their scenes. In their antagonism toward each other—stemming from class divisions within the Black community—lies the seed of a good drama, one that would likely be more gripping and original than what Colorblind offers.
Colorblind is running through June 29 at the Actors’ Temple (18 W. 47th St.). Performances are at 7 p.m. Monday and Wednesday, with matinees at 2 p.m. Saturday. For tickets, visit colorblindoffbroadway.com.
