‘Confederates’ Review: Slave Play

metroweekly.com:

Confederates renders a frank, witty, and delightfully twisted exploration of racial biases, be they unconscious or firmly resolved.The play, directed by Stori Ayers in a riveting new production at Mosaic, derives some suspense from the anticipation that its parallel plotlines might connect.

But whether or not the individual stories of embattled college professor Sandra (Nikkole Salter) and enslaved rebel Sara (Deidre Staples) actually meet, their experiences as Black women, though separated by centuries, are still intertwined.Even Nadir Bey’s evocative set design suggests as much, combining Sandra’s office and Sara’s plantation cabin within the same space.

No walls separate the present from the past. Sandra’s seemingly successful modern-day life as a tenured professor exists as part of the legacy of rebels like Sara.Some troll on Sandra’s campus means to shove that legacy down her throat, posting on her office door an altered photo of an enslaved Black woman suckling a white baby.Sandra’s loose investigation into the matter proceeds through a series of meetings in her office, well-acted one-on-one discussions that generally devolve into tense, funny verbal sparring matches.One of her Black students, Malik (Joel Ashur), dissatisfied with the grade on his last paper, accuses Sandra of showing a preferential bias towards the women in class.

Her insistently P.C. student assistant Candice (Caro Dubberly), who’s white, hints that some students believe it’s racial bias that colors Sandra’s preferences for certain students.And Sandra’s faculty colleague Jade (Tamieka Chavis), who’s Black, questions whether Sandra will pay any loyalty to the sisterhood when casting a vote on Jade’s prospective tenure.In one emotionally fraught.