Two-man play is ghostly tale of race and identity

There are never more than two actors onstage in Emigrant Theater's production of "Blue Door," but it's a crowded space nonetheless. In playwright Tanya Barfield's layered and insightful meditation on race, assimilation and cultural memory, which opened this past weekend in the Guthrie Theater's Dowling Studio, the stage bustles and echoes with the voices and images of ghosts who seem almost more alive than the living man they haunt.

That man is Lewis, a middle-aged black mathematics professor whose wife has recently left him, ostensibly because he refused to participate in the Million Man March. Over the course of a sleepless night, he is visited by the ghosts of his great-grandfather, grandfather and brother. Each of these men holds a piece of the story of who Lewis is and each attempts to hold up a mirror to reflect his long-denied cultural history back at him.

Lewis has spent a lifetime building walls between himself and his past, so these ghosts have their work cut out for them. David Eulus Wiles makes his character's resistance a physical manifestation, with a staccato, tight-lipped style of delivery and stiff, controlled body language. His coiled intensity gives him a forceful and almost ominous stage presence. He's clearly a man more comfortable with the precision of a mathematical equation than with the inexact dynamics of emotion.

Eric Avery is Wiles' polar opposite in his triple roles as Lewis' relatives. He brings an expansive geniality and sense of hard-won wisdom to the role of Simon, the great-grandfather who relates his own story of experiencing slavery and emancipation. On the other hand, Rex, Lewis' dead brother, is a simmering portrait of righteous anger as he stalks the stage and challenges his sibling to face their shared history. Avery's dynamic energy and ability to effect lightning-fast changes of mood, tempo and character are essential components in making this two-man show work so well.

Barfield's play is a dense, complex piece of work that covers an immense amount of ground in trying to encapsulate more than a hundred years of history through one man's family story. This solid production, under the sure direction of Jessica Finney, avoids what could become merely dialectic argument by infusing the playwright's compelling stories with humor, energy and honesty.

Barfield is an exciting new voice in American theater, and "Blue Door" amply displays her stunning grasp of language and solidly crafted characterization, as well as her unwillingness to settle for easy answers. Emigrant Theater and the Guthrie are to be commended for offering such a fine opportunity to experience her work.

Lisa Brock is a Minneapolis writer.