When playwright and actor Ken Narasaki sat in his seat last night to watch the West Coast premiere of DISSONANCE at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank, he did not expect to walk out.
Neither did he expect to write and publicly post about his experience. Although Falcon Theater did apologize to his post on their Facebook page wall, in his open letter, Narasaki stresses the impact of the reaction and opinion of the individual audience member versus the masses. But we cannot help but think, where is the line drawn? In 2012, how are racial epithets allowed to slide by on the stages of a city as culturally and ethnically diverse as Los Angeles?
Read on and tell us what you think. Or if you’ve ever been in a similar situation on either side of the fence, we’d like to hear from you.
I walked out of DISSONANCE last night because of the main character’s “comic” use of the phrase “squinty-eyed bastards” and “Japs”. I have been involved with theater as an actor, writer, director, literary manager and a story analyst for the past 35 years, so I do understand that theater should not be constrained by “political correctness” and I do understand that the character was supposed to be a jerk, and I do understand that you should not be censors because there are things in most interesting plays that could potentially offend any number of people.
I just want to ask you this: Would you have presented the play as is if the character had said “black bastards” and “niggers”? How about “Jew bastards” and “kikes” in the context of a cheap laugh line?
I’m fairly certain that you would not, and I’m fairly certain your audience wouldn’t have laughed as they did last night.
Context is everything and I believe no words should be “taken off the table” because sometimes racial epithets can make important points in illustrating attitudes and illuminating characters. In this case, I saw absolutely no need for these words and believe it is only because the writer and the artistic personnel involved in the production simply discounted how disgusting these words would be to any of your Asian American audiences. Indeed, not every Asian would feel the same sort of horror that I did, but I feel it is important to let you know that it was a surreal experience to sit in what appeared to me to be an all-white audience, to hear those epithets, and to hear the audience LAUGHING. I felt like I’d been tossed back in time to the 1960s when I used to hear words like that on the schoolyard by racist bullies and ignorant classmates who found things like that hilarious. I had to leave because, honestly, I was emotionally sickened by the experience and flabbergasted that it was used so lightly and with so little reason or purpose; it was ugly to me, and a little shocking to realize that my fellow audience members apparently found such racist speech “naughty” or “daring” enough to laugh.
I would also suggest to you that ignoring the impact these kinds of words have on the few minority members in your audience probably have an effect you may not notice: A lot of audience members may wince, but stick it out and in the end, wouldn’t be angry enough to write you a letter, but on the other hand, may never return – in other words, you may be driving away audiences not angry enough to let you know because, after all, it’s not THAT big a deal; on the other hand, they know that your theater is not for them, so you’ve lost them without ever knowing why.
I hope you’ll give this some serious thought and discuss this because I seriously doubt that I will ever return to the Falcon.
Sincerely,
Ken Narasaki
Reposted with permission from Ken Narasaki.
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Yeah, people choose to rile themselves over words. People choose to be offended. What offends one person, isn’t going to offend everyone.
I remember working on a production of Showboat many years ago and the whole thing about using the word “nigger” came up. Funny thing was, the white people were more offended by it and nervous about it than the black people in the cast.
So often in this PC day and age, I see people getting on their high-horse about things like this. It’s one thing to choose to be offended by something and quite another to announce your offense to the world and try to get them to come along with you and agree?
I haven’t seen the play, but from the description, it seems perfectly in line with the character to have said the things he said. It’s sad that someone can’t differentiate between words meant to be used as actual harm and those that are just meant to convey a story.
But how silly is it to blame the Falcon Theater for this and threaten to never go back. They didn’t write the play did they?
Key phrase here Eric: “I haven’t see the play but… it seems perfectly in line with the character to have said the things he said.” Really Eric?
Hey Eric,
I also haven’t seen the play, and I think if it is tastefully done, or makes sense for the time period that the play takes place in that those words should be welcomed in the theater, especially because of those lines and to cross boundaries. However; knowing Ken personally, I know that for him to write about something like this, It must not have been done with good taste or reason.
Reading the same description you read, it looks like it wouldn’t fit in line with the character, and was just done for a cheap laugh and not necessarily needed. I’m not sure where you read in that it would be, but I would love to hear more about how you arrived at that conclusion. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he was on a high horse, the letter seems intelligently thought through and brings up some valid points, it wasn’t just a rant for the sake of ranting or to ‘rile themselves up.’
I agree it does seem silly at first to blame the Falcon Theater, and I agree it’s a dialogue to have, perhaps, with the playwright, but at the same time they did decide to produce the piece. So it just depends on how you view it I guess.
My comment awaits moderation at the other blog, so I’ll just go ahead here and call Colin a coward for censoring my post to make sure it’s put up.
It boggles my mind sometimes that such enlightened, post-racial savants cannot comprehend how their oh-so-clever hipster racism may offend potential patrons and their family, friends, those who seem them as more than an easy target for white audiences to mock and laugh at (ironically, of course).
And just look at that self-absorbed title. Blinded by the White anyone? “Obstinate Robbery Victim Annoyingly Follows Up with Local Authorities.”
@eric Political correctness has gotten out of hand. Like your example of Showboat, the people who were uncomfortable maybe shouldn’t have decided that it was offensive. However, that example also brings out the discretion needed based on the situation and context. Sometimes the context is just “writing for cheap laughs.” Some people ARE overly sensitive, but others seem to be desensitized–so much to the point that they can’t comprehend why anyone should feel the need to speak out against offensive material.
The whole Civil Rights Movement was,quoting you now, “being offended by something and announcing your offense to the world and trying to get them to come along with you and agree.” The people who decide that there is something morally wrong in perpetuating the generalization and therefore dehumanization of people on a socially-constructed, nonscientific basis are not on the high horse. They are the ones who come from a long line of people trampled by the people on the high horse that was only afforded through the accident of birth into their social group, beat down of the less powerful, and intentional ignorance of morality.
It is up to the individual to decide whether or not to be offended.
And it isn’t up to others to force an opinion on them. Reread your post. It goes both ways.
I am sick and tired of those using “in this PC day and age” as a defense to continue using epithets, stereotypes, or anything else fundamentally offensive because of their unwillingness to change personally. Nor do these people grasp the concept that an intelligent society should evolve moving forward. Those who blame others for having a “thin-skin” are reluctant to understand another’s perspective and seemingly wish to keep society frozen in time – perhaps out of laziness to change their own behavior, or even worse, don’t feel it’s needed since they may be of the majority in society anyway (though are likely threatened by the thought of equality and diversity).
Thank goodness the white guy is here to tell people what they should and shouldn’t be offended by. He gets to decide.
Thumbs up on this comment.
I did see this (not great) play and Ken is right, the incidental use of racism in this play was wholly unnecessary, and simply used to garner cheap laughs.
As Ken wrote in a later comment, “And as a way of illuminating his character? By that point, it was screamingly clear that he was a tyrannical English asshole, adding racism to the mix was simply adding more stink to a pile of shit.”
Well said.