Fairview

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” (“Fairview, by Jackie Sibblies Drury.” The Pulitzer Prizes).

This guide refers to the edition of Fairview published in 2019 by Theatre Communications Group.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain descriptions and discussions of racism, race, and Black racial stereotypes. This guide quotes and obscures the source text’s use of the n-word.

Plot Summary

The play takes place in the kitchen and living room of the Frasiers, an upper-middle-class Black family living in a nice neighborhood. Act I begins with Beverly, who nervously prepares dinner for her mother’s birthday party, determined that everything must be perfect for Mama. Throughout the act, there is much dancing and music. The family gathers one by one, beginning with Dayton, Beverly’s husband, who lovingly teases and reassures her. Next comes Jasmine, Beverly’s funny, single, self-assured sister, who announces that she has quit eating dairy but steals bites from the cheese plate. Then, Beverly and Dayton’s teenage daughter Keisha comes home after practicing an unspecified sport. Keisha is an overachiever who wants to take a year to find herself before going to college; she pleads with Jasmine to intercede on her behalf with Beverly. Beverly is upset when her brother Tyrone, a prominent lawyer, calls to say that he might not make it to dinner. Keisha gets a call from her friend Erika, who needs to bring her something. This annoys Beverly, who insists that Mama doesn’t like Erika. Tensions rise, the cake is burned, and Beverly suddenly faints, bringing the carrots down with her as the family rushes around her.

In Act II, the onstage action of Act I begins again, but quietly this time, as a conversation is heard among four presumably white spectators. Jimbo asks Suze what race she would choose to be if she were offered the choice. Suze, a “good little liberal” (38), avoids answering, but Jimbo’s ready response is that he would be Asian but would rebel against the uptight, overachieving, traditional culture and teach “them” how to be less repressed. Mack enters and is drawn into the conversation, and he decides that he would like to be a feisty, fiery, Latinx person. Jimbo is especially interested in the response of their fourth friend, Bets, who is from an unspecified European country. Bets decides that she would choose to be Slavic, although she complains that Americans are too obsessed with race. When wheedled to answer the question, Suze admits that she would be Black, largely because she was primarily raised by a Black woman who was hired as her maid or nanny; Suze feels that this aspect of her childhood gives her a special kinship with Black people. Onstage, Beverly faints, and the play continues silently. There is dancing and endless piles of fake food, and Jimbo gives an increasingly angry speech about seeing his life as a movie in which he is in charge.

Act III begins with Beverly calling Mama to come downstairs for her birthday dinner. Mama, who is now played by Suze, enters with dramatic flair. Everyone eats, and only Keisha feels that something is wrong. Then Tyrone arrives, but he is now played by Jimbo and dressed as a stereotype of Black masculinity rather than the lawyer he is. Then Erika arrives with a mysterious envelope for Keisha; Erika is now played by Mack, who is dressed like a drag queen. The envelope contains a pregnancy test, although Keisha doesn’t know why and swears that she isn’t pregnant. She is ordered to prove it by taking the test, so she exits. Suze/Mama performs an uncritical acceptance of Keisha, claiming to know her completely. Then Bets enters as an even more dramatic version of Mama. Keisha returns with an inexplicably positive test, and Jimbo/Tyrone reveals that the Frasiers are broke and are losing the house, even though Dayton always pays the bills. They argue whether the money went to gambling or to drugs, and the white actors start a food fight that becomes aggressive. Keisha wonders if those onstage could switch places with the white people in the audience, and then the Black people could be alone together to tell stories that are not filtered through a racist white perspective. She invites the white people to come up on the stage.