Even the most liberal of teachers would cringe at the didactic method used to teach children about slavery in Underground Railroad Game, which sees two idealistic instructors give the Civil War the immersive experience. The show opens in a classroom where the two teachers, a white male (Scott Sheppard) and a black female (Jennifer Kidwell), inform us - we play the parts of the students - that we will be divided into two groups, one half of the classroom will be the Confederacy, the other the Union. Those in the Union will have to help slaves (represented by dolls) find their way to freedom in the North, while the Confederate armed forces attempt to stop them. The endgame isn’t only making history “interactive”, but also to make us reexamine where we stand, and what side of history we’ve made sure to maintain alive.
If ever a show wanted to make the audience deeply uncomfortable this is it, but participation-phobics need not worry, for our participation is minimal, audience members are asked to raise their hands a few time, or a applaud, but no one gets pulled onstage. The anxiety that the notion of the game provokes though, should be enough to warrant each one in the audience their own solo show about how their identity has, for better or worse, determined how they are perceived by others.
Structurally the play feels like a sketch show in which each scene tries to outdo the previous one in terms of outrage. There is everything from whippings, to implied cunnilingus, as if each moment in the show was designed specifically to make people squirm, look away, or be shocked. And if the humor isn’t always effective, the show gets across its indignation in a powerful way, particularly when it makes its main point which is that not even white liberal “allies” will ever understand what it’s like to be a person of color, or to carry the burden of a history of slavery on your shoulders.
What elevates the show from an adult comedy into something urgent is that it touches on the delicate balance between being conscious of racism, and opposing it, or using it for your own self-congratulatory benefit. The play makes a point of stressing how white liberals tend to fetishize their own sense of goodness, and asks if white guilt is nothing more than cloaked racism. Can people ever really look past race? Should they aim for color blindness? Even though dramatically Underground Railroad Game leaves a bit to be desired, the power of its message makes it an absolute must-see.
