Straight White Men at Brown University

Named, “the most adventurous playwright of her generation,” by the New York Times, Obie Award winning director and playwright, Young Jean Lee, explored a new discourse in her work-in-progress Straight White Men at Brown University on Saturday night.

Presented by Brown TAPS and Sock and Buskin, Lee’s project is set in the conventions of a middle-class home where three brothers and a widowed father explore racial identity, gender relations, and self-actualization.

The story was set during a cozy Christmas holiday that was soon destabilized by one brother’s struggle to find purpose as a straight, white male in contemporary society. In attempt to aid his struggle each character revealed his own issue to self-actualize in a declining monocultural world.

The performance compelled the audience to question forms of privilege through the patriarchy of the characters and the perspective of Lee herself. Lee explained to the Brown Daily Herald, “When starting a play I ask myself, ‘What’s the last show in the world I would ever want to make?’ Then I force myself to make it.” Lee also explained the script’s development as an “intensely collaborative” effort between the cast, crew, and direction.

Lee is no stranger to addressing controversial subjects on stage. Her projects often explore identity, as evidenced in her previous works, The Untitled Feminist Show, exploring feminist ideals,  The Shipment, a play examining the black identity, and Asian-American social politics in Song of the Dragons Flying to H

Sock and Buskin will run “Straight White Men” April 4-7, 10-12 and 14^th in the Leeds Theater at Brown University. Shows start at 8 p.m. of Fridays and Saturdays with afternoon matinees at 2 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, contact the Brown University box office at (401) 863-7552.eaven as shown on the Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company website.

The dimSocialite