Passage Theater’s new play “White Guy on the Bus” promises to deliver both controversy and discussion when it rolls onto the stage at the Mill Hill Playhouse in Trenton on Thursday, May 5.
Prominent Philadelphia-based playwright and screenplay writer Bruce Graham’s drama focuses on Ray, a successful white business male executive, his weekly bus trip from the suburbs into the city, his relationship with a young black woman, and the undercurrent of racial prejudice in contemporary America.
“This is a play with guts,” wrote Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones when the play premiered there last year. “This writer has previously been inclined toward sentimentality, as such sweet works as ‘Stella and Lou’ and ‘The Outgoing Tide’ attest. Not this time. The gentle first few minutes notwithstanding, this one is red, racially charged meat.”
Jones said the play “goes for the jugular” and ended the review with the cautionary “Whereas most plays eventually promote interchange and understanding, this is the rare piece bold enough to suggest that when a white guy gets on a bus, far from home, it’s entirely possible that nothing good is coming whatsoever.”
Graham, — who has national theater, film, and television credits under his belt — established himself on the stage in the mid-1980s with “Burkie,” “Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar & Grille,” “Moon Over the Brewery,” and other plays of a more wistful and lyrical tone.
For this play Graham — a recipient of awards from the Pew, Rockefeller, and Princess Grace foundations — says in an email exchange, “I got the idea for ‘White Guy on the Bus’ years ago when I read an article about how many prisons are isolated in rural areas making it very difficult for families to visit. Many of these folks are below the poverty level with no access to cars. Don’t know why but thought that might be the germ of a play.
“During research I rode the bus to Riker’s Island, where everyone is basically screamed at by guards before being allowed in to visit. Being the only white guy on the bus I got a little more scrutiny. The play started to take shape there.”
Passage Theater organizers note that the play fit the 30-year-old nonprofit company’s interest in producing socially relevant new works and promoting discussion.
Maplewood, New Jersey, based director Michelle Tattenbaum, whose credits include work at San Diego’s Old Globe Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, Manhattan Theater Club, and more, leads a cast including Philadelphia performers Greg Wood, Susan Riley Stevens, Laura Chaneski, Danielle Lenee, and Nate Washburn.
“White Guy on the Bus,” Mill Hill Playhouse, 205 East Front St., Thursday, May 5, through Sunday, May 22, Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3, $20 to $35, 609-392-0766. www.passagetheatre.org.
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