We spent the afternoon at the Studio Theatre, watching the final performance of Exception to the Rule, a new play by Philadelphia playwright Dave Harris. It is a one act, 90 minute show, with a simple premise. The school day is over, but six teenagers have to stay after school in detention. The span of the detention is unclear; they have to stay until teacher Mr. Bernie signs a paper and tells them they can leave. But, unfortunately, Mr. Bernie is a Godot, and never shows up. They may have to stay in detention all weekend – and it’s a three day weekend.

All the kids in detention are Black. My assumption is, although it is nowhere stated, that all the students in the entire school are Black. Whether Mr. Bernie is Black or White, we don’t know. And we don’t even know if the voice over the intercom (played by veteran Washington actor Craig Wallace, who is definitely Black) is Black or White.

Five of the teenagers are regulars in detention, although we don’t know if they are the only regulars, because they never mention anyone else. The sixth teenager, Erica, is in detention for her first time. She is a “brain”, a goody-goody, a diligent student (“College Bound Erica” is one of her nicknames). But here she is in detention to everyone’s amazement. Why is she there?

A number of things don’t make sense. Some are big, like how could there be detention with the teacher in charge just not showing up? Others are small, like how could no one know what time it was, even though at least three of them had cell phones. And why couldn’t they communicate with the outside world, since at least three of them had cell phones. And how could the school be “locked down” after the end of the school day, so no one could get in or get out? Where is the fire marshall?

Oh, I guess I should say this. I thought this was a terrible play, and I felt like I was the one in forced detention for much of the 90 minutes of the show. I found the dialogue artificial and offensive. (Yes, I understand. I am 80 and these guys are about 17, and they are different than me.) I found the students each a stereotype, and not a very human one. I also thought that some of the actors were considerably better than others.

The gist of the script is that Erica was going to go on to college, make a big success of herself, and forget about her past and forget about her classmates. Erica on the other hand does not think she is very special, only that she is trying very hard, and she thinks that the other five, if they acted like she could, would be able to go to college and achieve the same degree of success. The ending is ambiguous, leaving this question (a big one, of course) open.

I guess the play is a comedy. I read a review on DC Theater Arts that berated the audience for not laughing at obviously funny jokes. I have the opposite reaction. The audience laughed a lot this afternoon. But I didn’t find any line funny or clever.

Dave Harris must have a very low view of most Black high school kids in this country. Or at least he must have this view of a significant portion of them, or he wouldn’t put these characters in his play as representative of Black teenagers, except for Erica, who is clearly the Exception to the Rule. You get the feeling that all they talk about is sex, except when Erica presses them on other subjects.

And, yes, I am sure that a group of Black kids in detention will speak with many non-PC words. After all, even a presidential candidate does that these days. And I know that certain groups of Blacks do use the word “nigger” without hesitation. And maybe 17 year olds do that in their regular conversation; at least maybe those who wind up in detention on a regular basis do. But in this 90 minute show, I counted the word “nigger” used 32 times. And I would guess that there were some that I missed.

Is this necessary? Is this appropriate? I understand that many Blacks think that they can call other Blacks niggers, and that there is nothing wrong with that. But Whites, like me, get in trouble even if they use the word in writing. Aren’t there those who want to ban Huckleberry Finn for this reason?

I submit that this double standard is totally misplaced. If “nigger” is a a word that Whites shouldn’t use, neither should Blacks. And because it is clearly an often-used word in at least part of the Black community, it should not be celebrated, but discouraged. A play like this which uses the word at least 32 times, is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Enough said about all of this. Exception to the Rule closed this afternoon. I hope the remainder of the Studio season is better. And I am willing to bet that it will be.