Dominique Morisseau’s time-traveling play ponders how racism and sexism have endured across American history
When we first meet Sara, a resourceful enslaved woman in Dominique Morisseau’s “Confederates,” she’s polishing off a little surgery. A hospital could sell tickets to medical procedures as entertaining as actor Deidre Staples makes this one at Mosaic Theater Company.Suturing a minor wound sustained by her brother, Abner , who has joined the Union Army, Staples’s Sara exudes both competence and pique. She sews with big arm movements and rebukes her sibling for being a bad patient.
“Confederates” swoops back and forth in time between Sara, who becomes a Union spy, and Sandra , a political science professor at a modern university. Sandra has tenure and a reputation for brilliance, but when a shocking photoshopped image is affixed to her office door, she must acknowledge the resentment and bigotry she confronts as a successful Black woman. As the two stories unfurl, the play ponders how racism and sexism have endured and interacted across American history.
Her physical poise and frequently curt tones conveying Sandra’s intellect and confidence, Salter also illuminates the professor’s bafflement at being misunderstood. Adding to Sandra’s problems is Malik , a student who objects to the grade he received on a paper about the parallels between slavery and modern corporate America. Then there is Jade , another Black professor, who believes Sandra is sabotaging her career.
Style is where The Washington Post covers happenings on the front lines of culture and what it all means, including the arts, media, social trends, politics and yes, fashion, all told with personality and deep reporting. For more Style stories,Facilitating the time travel is Nadir Bey’s set, a university office fused with a 19th-century cabin and surrounded by cotton plants.
One piece of clothing gets a poignant moment in the spotlight. The overprotective Abner has forbidden his sister to follow him to war. But when she begs to hold his musket, “so I know what it feels like to have the power of freedom in my hands,” he lets her. He also drapes her in his Union army coat. Sara looks, fleetingly, blissed out.by Dominique Morisseau. Directed by Stori Ayers; lighting design, John D.
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