EDITOR’S NOTE: Ensemble Theatre opens its 2021-22 season with a relaunch of Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline. They staged a single performance on March 11, 2020, the night it opened, before COVID cut the production short. Its set has remained on ETC’s stage since then.
CRITIC’S PICK
According to statistics from the American Civil Liberties Union, black students make up just 16 percent of public school enrollment, but they account for 42 percent of students suspended multiple times. Black students are suspended and expelled three times more frequently than their white peers. This often causes further negative outcomes, including dropping out of school, which often leads to crime and incarceration.
That backdrop is the core issue in Dominique Morisseau’s 2017 play, Pipeline, onstage at Ensemble Theatre. Nya (Sharrell D. Luckett), a divorced mother, teaches at an inner-city public high school. She and her ex, Xavier (Kenneth Early), have enrolled their son Omari (Jay Wade) in an exclusive upstate private high school to insulate him from risk. But he feels isolated. When a white teacher presses him with questions during a discussion of Richard Wright’s Native Son, Omari resents being singled out (“I don’t want to be a token respondent”) and becomes belligerent. Leaving the classroom without permission, he pushes the teacher against a smart board. His “third strike” against school rules will cause suspension, with the looming threat of charges being pressed.
Nya feels guilty as does Xavier, who has distanced himself from his son. Omari disappears from school after communicating obliquely with his smart, sassy girlfriend Jasmine (Angelica Santiago). Nya and Xavier spar about how to address the situation and prevent Omari from entering the school-to-prison pipeline. Nya’s school colleagues, weary veteran teacher Laurie (Connan Morrissey) and beleaguered security officer Dun (Bryant Bentley), commiserate with her about managing unruly students, but their conversation leads her to a panic attack.
Morisseau’s play employs naturalistic, vernacular dialogue, and the cast, thoughtfully directed by veteran Ron “O. J.” Parson, rises to the occasion by enacting this powerfully moving and provocative tale. Woven through the narrative is a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks that Nya shares with her students: “We Real Cool.” In two dozen chilling words, it traces the descent from “We left school” to “We die soon.” It’s the nightmare Nya fears Omari is entering.
Luckett is powerful and empathetic as Nya. Uncertain as how to best support her son, she finds that few warnings register with him. As Xavier, Early plays a proud black man who has moved on to a stable, successful life. In the process he has fulfilled his parental responsibilities but avoided emotional engagement.
Wade’s Omari is both angry and vulnerable. We first meet him as he talks with Jasmine, played with confidence by Santiago. With apparent depth of feeling, they argue about what happened and what he or they should do. His actions have already caused divisions. When he disappears and Nya arrives in search of him, she and Jasmine have a contentious, cross-generational argument. Both perspectives are admirably written by Morisseau, with the characters see-sawing between next steps.
Morisseau provides meaningful information for audiences via monologues, such as Jasmine’s sparky, long voice message for Omari near the end of the show. Nya’s tough conversations with her fellow employees feel very real. Morrissey is especially memorable as a teacher near retirement and at the end of her rope. She is furious about her treatment after breaking up a fight between two young men, hitting one with a broom. Students videoed the altercation and posted her actions, causing her to be reprimanded by school authorities.
When Omari finally returns home, his mother asks him to tell her what she needs to do. At first he has no answers, but at Pipeline’s conclusion, he offers a list of 10 ways she can support him: “Hear me out,” he begins. “Let me chill sometimes. Know when to back off. Know when to keep pushing. Let me have some space. Don’t assume me for the worst. Show up, in person. Be fair. Forgive that I’m not perfect.” That’s actually only nine: He leaves his list open-ended, perhaps implying that continued conversation is possible. That’s a positive note from a show with a difficult premise. It’s one we should heed, a message that ETC is adept at delivering.
All performances of Pipeline, presented by Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, have been temporarily suspended in light of the COVID-19 virus. In an email, the theater asks patrons not to call the box office about ticket exchanges until they’re able to announce rescheduled dates. Visit ensemblecincinnati.org for more information.
This article appears in Mar 4-17, 2020.
