Arena Stage’s ‘Trouble in Mind’: Character-rich and well-acted play about race
"White folks can't stand unhappy Negroes, so laugh," the veteran black actress instructs the young black actor in "Trouble in Mind," Alice Childress's wise and extraordinarily winning comedy-drama about American racial strife as it plays out in a New York rehearsal room, circa 1957.
The counsel of Wiletta Mayer, portrayed in Arena Stage's wondrously effective production by E. Faye Butler, falls disconcertingly on the ears of Brandon J. Dirden's John Nevins, who's been cast along with Wiletta in what sounds like a ghastly Southern play, "Chaos in Belleville." But while John disdains the idea of pasting on a grin of supplication for the show's white director, he's not above accepting a part in a Broadway play that treats black characters in the most patronizing way. It is, after all, a job.
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