Like Gibbons's earlier play (and New Rep production) "Permanent Collection," "House," premiering here as part of the National New Play Network, uses a fictionalized museum setting as a microcosm of the relationships between black and white Americans, both past and present. But where "Permanent Collection" focused on questions of artistic merit and cultural con text, "House" goes right to the center of the wound: slavery.
The house in question is a tiny outbuilding behind George Washington's Philadelphia townhouse, where (in a plot loosely based on actual events) a Museum of American Liberty is now being built. But this building, we soon learn, housed nine of Washington's slaves - and the grim irony of celebrating liberty in a place that destroyed it unleashes a furious and often fascinating debate.
On one side stands Salif Camara, a weary but still fiery black activist who demands, with bullhorn and banners, that the museum revise its plans and include a comprehensive exhibit on slavery. On the other is Cadence Lane, a black conservative historian who argues that such a "shrine" would only perpetuate an unhealthy focus on black "victimhood."
Well, this is all interesting, and Gibbons gives each some strong and finely crafted arguments to support their apparently irreconcilable views. He also tosses a publicity-minded white museum director and a white "guilty liberal" professor into the mix, reminding us that all of us, of every color, must come to terms with our conflicted history of liberty and slavery. And, for good measure, he dramatizes the lives of two slaves who lived in the house: Ona Judge, who longs for freedom and is encouraged toward it by Philadelphia's early abolitionists, and her brother, Austin.
Each character is potentially fascinating, and New Rep's actors bring as much depth and specificity to them as they can. In particular, Johnny Lee Davenport is a mercurial, charismatic powerhouse as Salif, nicely counterpointed by Riddick Marie's cool sharpness as Cadence; Kortney Adams brings a quiet aura of courage tinged with fear to Ona.
