52 pages • 1 hour read
Fairview
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
Fairview, a play by American playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury, debuted Off-Broadway at Soho Repertory Theatre in 2018. At first, in Act I, the play presents itself as a family drama or a comedy about Black family members who are gathering to celebrate the birthday of their matriarch. With the second act, the play begins to deconstruct the notions of theater and spectatorship, focusing on the heaviness of the white gaze on Black-centered art and highlighting how the white gaze has shaped American representations of Black identity for centuries. By the third act, the play shifts its scrutiny of the white gaze in general to the white gaze of the audience in particular. Drury not only breaks the fourth wall, but she also dismantles the traditional one-way osmosis of performer to spectator. Ultimately, Fairview demands that audiences—particularly the predominantly white New York audiences—reconsider their notions of race as constructed for their consumption within theatrical performances.
Along with several nominations in the 2019 Drama Desk Awards, Fairview won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was described by the Pulitzer committee as “[a] hard-hitting drama that examines race in a highly conceptual, layered structure, ultimately bringing audiences into the actors’ community to face deep-seated prejudices” (“ Unlock all 52 pages of this Study Guide Plus, gain access to 8,900+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
