Five of the titular six: (clockwise from left) Claudia Logan, Seven F.B. Duncombe, CG, Will Cobbs and Julian Robertson.
Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author is considered a pillar of modern drama. To say Phillip Howze’s new play Six Characters deconstructs it would be a massive understatement, as Howze pours a bewildering array of ideas and scenarios into his homage.
Robertson as Character 1, who arrives to direct a play … and imitate Mussolini?
From Pirandello, Howze takes metatheatrics and the character of a director confronted by unexpected participants in his production. But the Director in this new Six Characters also has to deal with a runaway slave, the AFL/CIO, two people who just broke up, a butcher’s knife he mistakes for a prop weapon, fly space he can’t reach and a discussion about whether Aristotle was racist. He mutters in Italian and recites a speech from Mussolini (the real Mussolini’s voice is later heard like a soundtrack). Also figuring in the action: opera, stepping, book banning and a giant box of props and costumes labeled “Old Shit.”
In the first act, these varied references and elements fly about in a manner that’s not particularly cogent yet generally fun to watch, thanks to agile teamwork by the cast and a bunch of amusing visual aids. The play is undone, however, by a lethally paced second act that’s not only incomprehensible but barely visible for a stretch—one scene takes place within a dimly lit, cluttered cube on stage.
Howze’s play overall is a head-scratcher—so was Pirandello’s when it debuted in 1921—and it seems like a missed opportunity. Recasting a classic of the Western (white) canon within African American culture, and using it to address societal or historical issues, would be a good premise, but Howze throws so many things at the wall that it’s hard to discern what he’s getting at, or even to follow the dialogue at times.
“Howze’s play overall is a head-scratcher—so was Pirandello’s when it debuted in 1921.”
Audience members at Six Characters do not receive programs until intermission. The program contains no spoilers, although there are surprises in both acts as far as sets and character appearances. That playful attitude, as well as inside jabs at life in the theater (“devising is when a director works with a bunch of people and steals their ideas, then puts his own name on it”), is what buoys the first half, when Howze seems above all to be making a point about recent efforts to diversify the theater—or, more generally, about Black people entering white-dominated spaces. The entire cast, in unison, chants like a mantra:
Comedies are how you sell tickets these days. And Blackness is a trending topic. Blackness with a twist. Don’t upset the white people—we must include them in the conversation, right? … Whiteness: a.k.a. centralized national culture, a.k.a. nationalism, a.k.a. a form of diversity that panders to whiteness, a.k.a. accessibility for all. … Your work is not accessible if it’s utterly, simply, quietly Black. Your work must be loud and funny. Your work is not accessible if it doesn’t include a white proxy, a white voice, a white point of view on the events, a narrative arc that explains itself neatly.
It is also put forth that “American theater and the arts en masse are simply a system that’s fueled by white nationalism.” But like many of the topics that come up in Six Characters, they just barrel through, with attention soon diverted to something else.
Cobbs (left) and CG in Six Characters by Phillip Howze at the Claire Tow Theater at Lincoln Center. Photographs by Marc J. Franklin.
The second act eases up on the slurry of ideas—and on the overlapping talk. But its two-person scenes, featuring the same characters from the first act in different contexts, are slow-moving and hard to parse, and the drastic change of tone from the first act deflates the whole enterprise.
While viewers may not be clear about what’s going on in Six Characters, its actors—Julian Robertson, Claudia Logan, Seret Scott (from the original Broadway cast of For Colored Girls!), Will Cobbs, Seven F. B. Duncombe and CG—bring utmost certainty and conviction to their performances, portraying characters who are numbered 1 through 6 rather than named and who represent theater types (director, apprentice) and Black stereotypes (slave, janitor, “sassy” lady). Their timing, for both the comedy and the rhythms of the dialogue, injects a lot of energy into the first act, which might otherwise wear you out with all its antics.
This is a prop- and scenery-heavy show, so kudos also to the props team Ned Cian Gaynor and Aisha Hamida and costume designer Montana Levi Blanco. Director Dustin Wills, who raised his profile helming last year’s acclaimed Wet Brain and Wolf Play, does double duty as creator of Six Characters’ sets.
Six Characters runs through Aug. 25 at the Claire Tow Theater in Lincoln Center (Broadway and W. 65th St.). Performances are at 7 p.m. every day except Tuesday, with matinees at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; lct.org.
Playwright: Phillip Howze
Director & Set Designer: Dustin Wills
Costumes: Montana Levi Blanco
Lighting: Masha Tsimring
Sound: Christopher Darbassie
