Theatre Seven tackles race and history in the intriguing drama "Cooperstown" and mostly manages to succeed. Following the tightly wound tale of a small town grappling with social change, the characters capture the turmoil and sensitivity of everyday folk trying to adjust to unfamiliar events. Playwright Brian Golden draws well-developed characters who make a point of avoiding stereotypes and clichés. They all converge in a tiny diner run by Junior (Cecil Burroughs) with his sister Sharree (Ashleigh LaThrop) and Dylan (Tracey Kaplan) waiting tables on the weekend of a historic Baseball Hall of Fame induction.
People from all over the world, including Huck (a lively portrayal by Chance Bone) arrive to see Jackie Robinson become the first black man ever inducted into the institution. But not everybody in town is excited about the same thing. Junior toils over a report the entire weekend, convinced that Jimmy, the owner, will stop overlooking his hard work and reward him with a manager's position once he sees his skilled overview. Sharee is occupied with the injustice that her brother and all black people have endured and is intent on challenging the status quo. Grace (Emjoy Gavino), Jimmy's wife, sees the ceremony as an opportunity for her husband to create a progressive image with a Jackie Robinson photo-op. Of course, everything is not as it seems and several plot twists are subtly presented by director Brian Stojak. Except for the self-serving Jimmy, all the characters exhibit a convincing blend of flaws and virtues, with nobody coming off as racist or narrow-minded.
That's where some of the problems with this production lie. In an effort to be politically correct, Golden loses some of the historical accuracy and believability of the drama. All of the characters refer to Robinson as a black hero, but the term black wasn't widely used in 1962 and was considered a derogatory term by many black people. (Negro was the term used in that era, but Golden seems to skirt around using it.) The marriage of Grace, who is Asian (another term not used at the time), to a white man is another sensitive issue that is never addressed. Interracial marriages weren't legal in most of the country, yet that fact - not to mention the danger of the ongoing flirtation between Junior and Grace - isn't discussed. This takes away from the realism of the story, but overlooking that, it's an effective statement.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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