Many theatrical events claim to be "timely," especially since the 2016 presidential election. There seems to be a competition to see what can be the most "culturally relevant." (Even Michael Kahn tried to shoehorn Trumpism into his Hamlet.) Regardless of its faults, JC Lee's Relevance, which just opened as part of MCC's season at The Lucille Lortel Theater, is one of the more timely, or should I say, relevant, plays I've seen lately but that doesn't mean it has anything particularly new to say.
Lee does a terrific job highlighting some of the issues that have sprung up in the last five years or so in regards to social media, the idea of going viral, and how we reach people and create followings, or, as the internet would put it, our "brands." Yes, now that everyone has the internet at their fingertips, a camera, and the ability to create social media accounts, we all have a voice where we may not have in the past. We can all believe we are an authority, even when it's clear we are not. And the fact that everyone thinks they deserve a voice is one of the reasons the election ended up the way it did. It's also the reason we have think piece after think piece about things as insignificant as who won Album of the Year at the Grammys. It effects how we consume things, and how people become famous, become relevant. Lee also wonders if it matters how truthful we are if we're reaching the right people, turning the status quo upside down, and giving those who were marginalized or forgotten by even those who were supposed to be on their side a way of speaking out and creating their own narratives, their own truths.
Relevance focuses on two writers, a middle-aged, second-wave feminist, Dr. Theresa Hanneck who is white, and Msemaji Ukweli, a black millennial who wrote a hugely popular memoir and is looking to flip the feminist narrative on its head. She believes what Hanneck stands and has written about no longer pertains to the experiences of the young, of the black, of the women today. She has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter, she's been featured on Buzzfeed, and inexplicably, every word she says at the conference is being obsessed over on the internet (I say inexplicably because since when are literary conferences so popular?). These women spar during a conference panel session in the play's first scene, where their differing ideologies are mapped out, and where Theresa ends up feeling shamed and embarrassed. She spends the rest of the play licking her proverbial wounds (to steal a line from Lee) and trying to ruin Ukweli. She will not stand down and let the new guard rise up.
But why? Yes, ego is a very fragile thing, and someone who has had the success Hanneck has (she's portrayed as someone who has had a lasting impact on so many female writers and feminists, including Ukweli) is probably not used to being knocked down a peg or two. But this is a highly intelligent woman who has built a career in trying to give a voice to marginalized people. Why she would stoop so low as to try to destroy another woman at such a prestigious event (where she's even being given a lifetime achievement award) is not really developed. Sure, she must feel like she's losing her edge, that her influence is slipping away, but it doesn't justify her attempt to reveal Msemaji as a fraud. This isn't a criticism of the character we're presented with but a flaw in the writing. It just gives Lee the opportunity to show how people who may believe they are on the same side simply destroy each other because they believe they are right. This is something the left does constantly, and it's why the GOP are in power.
Ultimately, while Lee does a good job of highlighting these points, he doesn't necessarily shed any new light on them or develop them. The script plays like an outline of interesting points but doesn't make for compelling drama. We know the internet, and by proxy, society, is fickle, that fame is fleeting, and one wrong move or word can take it all away from you. There's always going to be something or someone new and bright and shiny to take the world by storm and leave you in the dust. It seems like Lee doesn't quite have anything too original to say about this, and in the end, when we see Hanneck and Ukweli go at it yet again during what is supposed to be Hanneck's keynote address at the conference, the playwright goes for the easy way out with shock value.
Lee does a terrific job highlighting some of the issues that have sprung up in the last five years or so in regards to social media, the idea of going viral, and how we reach people and create followings, or, as the internet would put it, our "brands." Yes, now that everyone has the internet at their fingertips, a camera, and the ability to create social media accounts, we all have a voice where we may not have in the past. We can all believe we are an authority, even when it's clear we are not. And the fact that everyone thinks they deserve a voice is one of the reasons the election ended up the way it did. It's also the reason we have think piece after think piece about things as insignificant as who won Album of the Year at the Grammys. It effects how we consume things, and how people become famous, become relevant. Lee also wonders if it matters how truthful we are if we're reaching the right people, turning the status quo upside down, and giving those who were marginalized or forgotten by even those who were supposed to be on their side a way of speaking out and creating their own narratives, their own truths.
Relevance focuses on two writers, a middle-aged, second-wave feminist, Dr. Theresa Hanneck who is white, and Msemaji Ukweli, a black millennial who wrote a hugely popular memoir and is looking to flip the feminist narrative on its head. She believes what Hanneck stands and has written about no longer pertains to the experiences of the young, of the black, of the women today. She has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter, she's been featured on Buzzfeed, and inexplicably, every word she says at the conference is being obsessed over on the internet (I say inexplicably because since when are literary conferences so popular?). These women spar during a conference panel session in the play's first scene, where their differing ideologies are mapped out, and where Theresa ends up feeling shamed and embarrassed. She spends the rest of the play licking her proverbial wounds (to steal a line from Lee) and trying to ruin Ukweli. She will not stand down and let the new guard rise up.
But why? Yes, ego is a very fragile thing, and someone who has had the success Hanneck has (she's portrayed as someone who has had a lasting impact on so many female writers and feminists, including Ukweli) is probably not used to being knocked down a peg or two. But this is a highly intelligent woman who has built a career in trying to give a voice to marginalized people. Why she would stoop so low as to try to destroy another woman at such a prestigious event (where she's even being given a lifetime achievement award) is not really developed. Sure, she must feel like she's losing her edge, that her influence is slipping away, but it doesn't justify her attempt to reveal Msemaji as a fraud. This isn't a criticism of the character we're presented with but a flaw in the writing. It just gives Lee the opportunity to show how people who may believe they are on the same side simply destroy each other because they believe they are right. This is something the left does constantly, and it's why the GOP are in power.
Ultimately, while Lee does a good job of highlighting these points, he doesn't necessarily shed any new light on them or develop them. The script plays like an outline of interesting points but doesn't make for compelling drama. We know the internet, and by proxy, society, is fickle, that fame is fleeting, and one wrong move or word can take it all away from you. There's always going to be something or someone new and bright and shiny to take the world by storm and leave you in the dust. It seems like Lee doesn't quite have anything too original to say about this, and in the end, when we see Hanneck and Ukweli go at it yet again during what is supposed to be Hanneck's keynote address at the conference, the playwright goes for the easy way out with shock value.
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