Smart People
In the Pulitzer Prize winning Ayad Akhtar play Disgraced , adults of different ethnic and religious backgrounds talk about race and racism, with most of them thinking they are so evolved and post-racial. In Lydia R. Diamond 's new work, Smart People , we are met with a similar premise but with different results. The titular smart people are Jackson ( Mahershala Ali ), an African-American doctor in his residency; Brian ( Joshua Jackson ), a white neuroscience researcher who speaks out against racism; Ginny ( Anne Son ), an Asian-American psychiatrist studying the Asian-American female experience; and Valerie (a captivating and natural Tessa Thompson ), an African-American actress. At rise (Cambridge, MA, circa 2007-2009), Jackson and Brian know each other, but all the other connections will be made throughout the course of the play. (A gripe: we see too little of the development of the relationship between the two women.) Their experiences—both professional and personal—are t...