Firehouse Theater’s production of James Ijames’ comedy hits its targets with a game four-person cast.

Looking at a painting that’s pretty much all one color can make one feel either like some philistine unable to comprehend the art or a savvy observer willing to say the emperor has no clothes. In James Ijames’ 2015 play WHITE, it’s a bit of both.

This is the second Ijames work onstage in Colorado this month, with a strong production of his 2022 comedy Fat Ham up at the Aurora Fox. Produced by the Firehouse Theater Company and showing at Denver’s John Hand Theater, White tackles everything from race and identity to the nature of art and personal branding.

The setup: Jane (Maya Ferrario) has just landed a new gig running a contemporary art museum in an unnamed city, and to put her stamp on it she wants to clear away works by “white dudes” in favor of women and people of color. Her artist friend Gus (Andrew Catterall), looking for a career bump, wants to be included in her upcoming “New America Exhibition” and is incensed when she informs him that even being queer isn’t enough to overcome his whiteness.

The fact that the new painting he shows her is an all-white composition doesn’t help, and when she suggests that if he were somehow Black and female he’d have a better shot, it sets the stage for what’s to come.

After relating his sob story to his boyfriend, Tanner (Timmy Pamintuan), Gus sees a vision — a muse of sorts in the form of “Saint Diana” — Diana Ross — who says she’s his inner diva and tells him to “take what’s on the inside and put it on the outside.”

It’s all very silly, and Ijames doesn’t do any kind of thunder bolt or near-death experience to explain how or why she appears. But Kenya Mahogany Fashaw has a lot of fun with it, returning soon in another role, Vanessa — an actor eager to make a name for herself and willing to hitch herself to Gus’ goofy wagon in a ridiculous plan aimed to help them both. Together they dream up a character named Balkonaé Townsend to act as a beard for his work.

She’s Black, she’s female, she’s lesbian, she’s a straight shooter whose unvarnished opinions will draw attention to her/his paintings and make them both famous! So let’s see what happens ….

From left, Maya Ferrario, Kenya Mahogany Fashaw and Andrew Catterall in ‘WHITE.’ | Photo: Soular Radiant Photography

Power cast

Director Julie K. Wolf has a powerful four-person cast to work with here, led by a commanding comic performance from Catterall as the sputtering Gus. He reminded me of a character out of a ’70s sitcom with his curly hair and mustache, brown pants and snap-flap shirts. In White, he’s the center of all the action as he flings himself into one challenging situation after another in pursuit of his goal.

As his English-teacher boyfriend, Pamintuan delivers plenty of laughs as the incredulous mate trying to keep up with the shifting story. Meanwhile, Ferrario is spot-on as the lifted-pinkie social butterfly laser-focused on making her show a hit.

Once Vanessa transforms into Balkonaé, it’s off to the races for Fashaw, who shows off her comic chops with a character who changes dramatically with every scene. She’s Eliza Doolittle and Frankenstein’s monster wrapped in one, swiftly growing beyond what Gus imagined her to be and upstaging him as she goes.

Andrew Catterall with Timmy Pamintuan in ‘WHITE.’ | Photo: Soular Radiant Photography

Ijames could’ve come down harder on Gus for his white-privileged cluelessness and racial tourism, but instead he just has fun with turning a lot of racist and sexist material on its head while skewering the commercialization of the artwork at the center of it all. There’s also plenty of pointed commentary about how we perceive things such as a work of art once we know the identity of the creator.

Wolf and Stage Manager Megan Davis do a nice job with the many scene changes, keeping the shifts quick and non-distracting. The set itself is fairly basic, although the raised platform stage left looked a bit clunky — especially as it’s the place where Diana and Balkonaé pronounce from on high. Lighting Designer Emily Maddox, as usual, keeps everyone well-lit, while the sound design by Madison Kuebler includes some well-placed bits of music tuned just right to avoid stepping on the actors’ lines.

White continues an extended run of thoughtful, well-produced productions by Firehouse. It’s a treat to see this and Fat Ham on Colorado stages at the same time — a unique chance to see the works of one of America’s hottest playwrights just miles apart.