REVIEW BY IGGY KIM
Spinning Into Butter
Written by Rebecca Gilman
Directed by Adam Cook
Ensemble Theatre, Sydney
May 17-June 29
US playwright Rebecca Gilman's feted work, Spinning Into Butter, is an unabashed self-examination of racial prejudice in the holier-than-thou liberal academic fraternity. Set in a college in the lily-white northeastern US state of Vermont, the lead character is Sarah Daniels (played by Tara Morice), a faculty dean forced to reconcile herself to her own racism as she deals with two "minority student issues" — racist notes posted on a black student's door and a talented student of Puerto Rican background who rejects her patronising offer of a scholarship.
The two issues come together when Daniels' self-righteous superiors hastily organise a forum to grandstand their liberal credentials and protect the college's market appeal. In this cynical exercise, the small number of students of colour are reduced to a springboard for the white students' and academics' collective breast-beating. When the coloured students react with hostility, Burton Strauss (played superbly by Graham Rouse) writes them off as ungrateful. Patrick Chibas (Myles Conti) throws the scholarship back in Daniels' face, writing an article attacking the college's approach to coloured students and moving to another school.
Amid the falling heap, Daniels realises she is incapable of dealing with any of the issues, being guilty of either cynicism or bureaucratic paternalism. While well-meaning and intellectually clear about the oppression of people of colour, at bottom lie deeply-ingrained gut feelings and responses that are crudely racist. This is cathartically aired at the height of the play, revealing the complex psychological and emotional structures that make up the wellspring of individual racist consciousness.
One of the enduring myths of liberal society is that racism is merely ignorance and/or irrationality of thought and opinion. It is to be remedied through rational discourse and education. The role of institutions is to facilitate this by administering policies of cultural diversity, equal opportunity and culturally sensitive language. Little light is shed on the intricate, systemic forces in capitalist society that ingrain racist responses.
Daniels personally struggles with and honestly confronts her racist responses. She searches for some resolution, at times bordering on wanting the truth of her feelings legitimised. But the only tools she has are the administrative gadgets of liberal bureaucracy — guidelines, codes of conduct, appropriately-worded statements, memoranda etc. This is effectively parodied when her boss, Catherine Kenney (Kim Hillas), orders her to devise a strategy to rid the college of racism in "10 bullet points".
Daniels is cynical about these insincere gimmicks, in part because she comes to realise that they have been a convenient escape hatch for dealing with her racism.
Resolution finally comes when Daniels resigns from her job and establishes genuine communication with the black student (an invisible character in the play).
Spinning Into Butter indicts the sterile barrier to real communication posed by the formalistic mechanisms and language of liberal tolerance. In that sense, it's a meaningful critique of "political correctness", without the errors of the conservative backlash against any attempt to use sensitive and non-prejudicial language.
But if racism is more than a cognitive process, then it is also more than a problem of communication. This is where the liberal limits of the play are reached. Not only do Daniels' racist prejudices remain an individual torment, stemming from unexplained sources, but the resolution can only ever lie in "talking it out".
Nevertheless, Spinning Into Butter is sufficiently thought-provoking and intelligent in approach. Rebecca Gilman is presently working on a film adaptation.
From Green Left Weekly, June 5, 2002.
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