Clearly an homage to LeRoi Jones’s Dutchman, Greg Keller’s Dutch Masters also takes place in a New York subway car and deals with the racial differences between a white/black couple. But where Jones tapped into the sexual sub-text of that first meeting, with a white girl needling, provoking, and finally stabbing the black guy, Keller takes his story in a different direction, one that is more contrived and artificial. In Rogue Machine’s West Coast premiere of the play, Keller would have us believe that a small, nerdy white kid, Steve (Josh Zuckerman), would fall into an edgy, prolonged conversation with a big, slovenly-dressed, rap-talking black youth named Eric (Corey Dorris). Not only that, he would also agree to get off the train with Eric in the middle of Harlem and go to his apartment with him, just to be able to smoke a little grass. Sorry, I just don’t find any of that believable. What follows, though, did manage to keep me in my seat. The revelation that Eric’s Jamaican-born mother Gloria worked for many years as a maid for Steve’s parents is believable and, eventually, provocative. The racial and class dynamics of that relationship are exposed in the confrontation between Steve and Eric, with the latter still boiling with rage over the way his mother was treated. “After twenty years of cleaning for you, nobody in your family went to see her in the hospital when she came down with cancer,” Eric shouts. “Not only that, you to this day don’t even know her last name!” The truth of those stinging remarks is what gives Dutch Masters its relevance and power — and made me think it would have worked better as a one-act, without the dubious setup on the subway train. In other words, less Leroi Jones, more Greg Keller. That said, there are other things to commend about Dutch Masters, beginning with the skillful, powerful performances of the two young actors, both of whom light up the stage. Director Cienfuegos deserves plaudits as well for his tight, hard-driving direction. Ditto David Mauer for his clever, mobile set design.
