PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Brosilow
We think we know the dynamic of a teacher and a student discussing a paper. It has happened to many of us. But in the Milwaukee Rep’s version of The Niceties—with Kate Levy as Professor Janine Bosko and Kimber Sprawl as student activist Zoe Reed—director Annika Boras turns that dynamic on its head. Several times.
The meeting begins civil enough but soon ramps to a throttling level of tension and doesn’t let go. “You don’t have to start with a compliment if you don’t respect my work,” Reed replies to her teacher’s criticism of her paper on slavery and the American Revolution. Bosko, whose Polish family came to America to avoid persecution, has worked her way up the ranks of academia to a professorship at a prestigious college. Her son is a classmate of Reed’s. She recalls firsthand when the university was all-male and the fight it took to allow women to enroll.
Reed takes a much-longer view and a more rigid one when it comes to systemic discrimination and how to change it. Bosko has worked within the system long enough to know the rules of diplomacy. Reed’s is a scorched earth tack, barely contained over years, decades and centuries of slavery and discrimination.
Toe-to-toe, the intense dialogue continues unabated. Bosko downplays Reed’s reliance on internet searches and suggests the student rely more on “big heavy books.” Reed counters, asking her teacher if she realized that she continually mispronounces students’ names? Bosko tells Reed she had to work twice as hard to be recognized. Frustrated with the written version of history, Reed says, “I am so tired of remembering for both of us.”
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Who writes history and whose version gets to be a part of the reporting of history? Who ultimately benefits from the accepted narrative? Can that narrative be corrected?
Teacher and student come at these ideas, quite strongly, from differing angles. Their rigid viewpoints are passionately well-reasoned but come at a cost.
Situated at the end of President Barack Obama’s second term, Eleanor Burgess’ two-act play is populated by only the pair of actors who, superficially at least, we may think should be aligned. Yet, the infinite, sensitive particulars of race, social class, gender and sexuality ensure more nuances than may ever be resolved. The Niceties is an intense intellectual slugfest that leaves neither side unscathed.
Through Sunday, Nov. 3, at the Stiemke Studio, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets, call 414-224-9490 or visit milwaukeerep.com.
