Many of the plays being produced in American theaters these days deal with issues of race and prejudice, and most are written to open audience ’ eyes, teach lessons and offer some measure of hope and solutions.
“White Guy on the Bus” is not one of those plays. It’s a scathing, cynical and unsettling indictment of White privilege that offers no hope or happy ending. But it sure makes you think. Bruce Graham’s 2015 play opened May 30 in its San Diego premiere at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista.
The production features a cast of five actors, four representing two generations of an affluent White family in a wealthy part of Philadelphia and a Black woman who lives in a poor, mostly Black part of town. The title comes from the periodic bus rides that bring together family patriarch Ray and struggling Black nursing student Shatique.
Because the play takes some shocking turns, as well as hopscotching (at first confusingly) back and forth through time, it’s best to describe only the characters and not the plot.
Ray is a middle-aged “numbers guy” whose career in finance has afforded his family a comfortable existence, but he’s bored and wants to start a new life. His wife Roz is a veteran school teacher who works in a poor, all-Black neighborhood. Their son Christopher is a liberal grad student studying how race is used in advertising and his wife, Molly, works at an elite private school.
In the first section of the play, these four characters discuss racial segregation, poverty, crime, “woke” TV commercials and more. All see themselves as open-minded champions of racial equality, but their barely hidden prejudices and ignorance of facts makes these conversations feel cringey.
Interwoven with these conversations are scenes of Ray sitting on a city bus next to his new acquaintance, Shatique. As the only White rider on the bus in one of the poorest sections of the city, Ray becomes an unexpected, but affable, presence during the weekly Saturday morning rides. Eventually, Ray and Shatique become friends, sharing stories about their lives – his one of comfort, hers one of struggle – and he eventually reveals the motivation for the trips.
The two-hour play’s structure is unorthodox and the character arcs are huge, but director Charles Peters does a fine job threading everything together and keeping the performances natural.
Steve Schmitz is excellent at building his character Ray, a man who dramatically transforms during the play. Taylor Ashley Knott is authentic and sympathetic as Shatique, a kind and striving single mom pushed to desperation for her family. DeNae Steele hones the sharp edges on her fiercely opinionated but well-intentioned character Roz. Geoffrey Ulysses Geissinger’s Christopher starts out an intellectual optimist, but ends up somewhere very different. And Greta Chan’s gentle but wise Molly is more insightful than she knows.
“White Guy on the Bus” is not an easy watch but it will open your eyes.
‘White Guy on the Bus’
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays. Through June 22
Where: OnStage Playhouse, 291 Third Ave, Chula Vista
Tickets: $25 and up
Online: onstageplayhouse.org
