Benchmark Theatre stages world premiere of Jeffrey Neuman’s play about racism and forgetting

Colorado playwright Jeffrey Neuman’s new play, The Road to Lethe, takes a familiar tale from Greek mythology and spins it into a modern-day exploration of race and privilege. Directed by Betty Hart, the play benefits from a strong cast and production but struggles at times to parse the two worlds it’s trying to simultaneously depict.

Lethe is loosely based on “The Judgement of Paris” — the story of competing goddesses and a golden apple that leads to the Trojan War.

Also from Greek mythology, “Lethe” is the river in the underworld that causes complete forgetfulness when drunk from. In Neuman’s story, the initial tale is played out by three elderly white women who receive a mysterious, very large Amazon package at their home. They don’t know what it is, but since some assembly is clearly required, they hire Kal, a Black handyman, to put it together.

We first see Kal (Arthur McFarlane III) before the show begins, sitting at a workbench toying with a model and eating popcorn with chopsticks (it’s a control thing, he later tells us). When he shows up to do the job, he’s confronted separately by each of the three women — who may or not be sisters — as he tackles what might be the easiest IKEA exercise of all time. With just a few screws, the contents of the mystery box come together into a plain wooden casket.

He meets Clovis (Jennifer Condreay), a pursed-lip, primly dressed pillar of suspicion clearly uncomfortable with having a Black man in her house. Next up is June (Barbara Porreca), a jaded matriarchal figure who warns Kal that whatever he thinks is going on is probably something else. Finally, there’s Millie (Christine Kahane), an Earth Mother type who disingenuously tries to look into Kal’s soul and understand his pain while she plans her own attack.

All of it is beautifully directed by Hart, whose happy place is often in the land of magical realism. Working with Benchmark Theatre’s always-on creative team, she successfully built the world imagined by Neuman and populated it with a well-picked cast that brings these curious characters to life convincingly.

But the script might lead to a bit of head scratching.

(L-R) Jennifer Condreay, Christine Kahane and Barbara Porreca in ‘The Road to Lethe’ | Photo: McLeod9 Creative

Split screen

It never became quite clear to me if each of the three women are meant to represent a particular goddess. If I had to guess, maybe Clovis is Hera, June is Athena and Millie is Aphrodite. But Neuman seems less interested in drawing direct comparisons than just using the idea of three women vying for the same prize as a jumping-off point.

The more direct line to the world of myth is with the River Lethe, depicted behind a scrim upstage and the occasional sound of water. Here we see an unknown character — played by eden origin — occasionally speaking in elevated language about … something. When the action shifts back to the “real” world of the women’s home, we still see the character moving around back there with the implicit challenge to the audience to discern the connection.

I never could, try as I might — at least in the moment. It’s not until later in the play that we meet “P” on the other side of the scrim and learn he is Kal’s brother — recently shot to death by police reaching for his inhaler. This is Kal’s pain, which weighs him down so heavily that he moves about the stage as if treading in wet concrete.

Were I to go back and see The Road to Lethe again, knowing that the character along the River Lethe is indeed Kal’s brother, I’m sure his utterances would have more meaning. But should we have to, or is that too much to ask of an audience? I couldn’t help but think that some earlier connection between the two worlds needed to be more clearly established to make it work.

The idea of a Black man wrongfully killed by cops now dwelling in the land of forgetfulness is rich and intriguing. Death is nothing if not the ultimate incident of forgetting, while on the other side the survivors live in a haze of poignant remembrance of the one they lost. As the story winds down, Neuman’s script does eventually make a nice landing as the elements of the tale come together and some kind of resolution between the worlds of the living and the dead is arrived at.

Memorable performances

The Road to Lethe features some fine performances, led by Arthur McFarlane III. We may at first think the plot will revolve around the package and those who want to claim it. But it’s Kal’s story at the heart of the play, slowly revealed against the backdrop of his interactions with the women. (The casket itself seems to become increasingly unimportant.)

McFarlane portrays a wounded man trying to slog his way through the day while attempting to regain some of his own identity following the loss of his BFF brother. It’s a tight, measured performance that leans more toward resignation to the world he and his brother lived in than outrage.

As exemplars of institutional racism, the three women aren’t so much monsters as they are clueless participants or unknowing enablers in the sad game of an uneven world. As Clovis, Condreay is the least sympathetic, convincingly depicting a Karen of sorts. Stick up her ass at all times, Clovis is clearly the one most likely to call the cops if she saw someone in the neighborhood who “looked out of place” — read, Black.

June’s treatment of Kal is more dismissive and insulting — at one point she refers to him as “boy.” Porreca hits the brassy notes just right and leaves us with the impression that, for all her faults, she’s the most honest of the trio.

Kahane’s character, Millie, is the most despicable of the three based on her duplicity. Disguised as it is beneath flowing garments and a young woman’s tresses, Kahane deftly shifts our perception of who the character is not only by one stunning act but by her indifference to the pain it causes.

For eden origin, playing P is tricky since he’s unknown and behind that scrim for much of the show (save one instance where he suddenly pops up high atop the set). When he emerges later in the show in a flashback to his violent end, it’s a powerful performance alongside that of McFarlane that helps pull the whole thing together.

Along with Hart’s strong direction, the production also benefits from Benchmark’s excellent creative team. Lighting by Neil Truglio, sound by Marc Stith and scenic design by Tina Anderson all contribute to the depiction of a netherworld bordering our own where the characters are compelled to define their place.

If you can make it past some of the confusing aspects of the dual world at the heart of The Road to Lethe, it’s a fascinating journey — and another in an increasingly long line of challenging and well-produced works Benchmark has become known for.