What an engaging and brashly funny comedy is “Barbecue,” now playing at the Public Theater! This clever play, written by Robert O’Hara, uses humor to mock racist stereotypes and serves not only as entertainment but also as an educational experience for the audience. Kent Gash’s direction does an ingenuous service in having stereotypical roles first performed by a white cast followed by a Black ensemble playing the same characters for contrast.
At first, it looks like bad comedy. There is laughter, some unconscious guffaws and other uncomfortable snickers about a family gathering for an intervention disguised as a barbecue for their close family member addicted to drugs. Until the end of the first half, the audience reacts to two different racial versions of the same comedy only to learn after intermission that it plays “better” with a Black cast, which later goes into production as a feature film and earns an Academy Award.
The skilled cast members, led by Kim Wayans of “In Living Color” television fame, deliver some offensive mockery of drug abuse and class that seems more like a 21st century version of “All in the Family.” It questions what we as a society really think about how “funny” we characterize and excuse drunken and drugged-out behavior. Unfortunately, it seems that we are more willing to excuse it when Blacks are the ones struggling with drug addiction.
Becky Ann Baker and John Earl Jelks also deserve special mention. Arden Myrin, Paul Niebanck, Tamberla Perry, Constance Shulman, Heather Alicia Sims, Samantha Soule and Benja Kay Thomas stayed true to a style of acting, with some well-placed flourishes, that contributed to the satirical sting of this modern comedy.
Scenic design by Clint Ramos provides a green forest-like backdrop for the park where the intervention takes place. Paul Tazewell gives both casts distinctive as well as some character-defining costumes.
“Barbecue” continues at the Public Theater through Nov. 1. It is a thought-provoking comedy for our times that engages and educates about race and class. For more information, visit www.publictheater.org/en/Public-Theater-Season/Barbecue.