THEATER: DAVID MAMET'S "RAZAS"

Text by Sarah Assemany

Wofford College

Legal Studies decided to spice things up by going to a politically charged play.  Our Advanced Legal Language professor took us to see David Mamet’s play, “Razas” or “Race” in a famous theater in Madrid, theater Matadero.  The theater is famous because it is a renovated slaughterhouse.  Upon learning this I was a little skeptical of how nice this theater was going to be.  However, once we arrived I was so impressed at how modern and chic the theater really was.   The theater was huge, but the room in which our play took place was intimate and quirky because there was no defined stage.  In the United States when you think of a play, you think of a stage with red curtains that open and close with each scene.  This play consisted of a white backdrop with a slightly raised white platform to create the law firm which was the setting for the entire play.  I felt very modern and cultured after watching each scene.

The play, “Razas”, was extremely interesting.  It definitely tested my listening skills as all of the characters spoke extremely fast in Spanish, but I am pretty confident that I left the play understanding its significance.  It was about a law firm with three lawyers in which two of the lawyers were African American and one was Caucasian.  The three of them had to decide if they would take a case in which a white man assaulted a young African American woman.  Although this play provided an extremely unique perspective on the race issue, it made me think of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.  I learned that race relations are prevalent in all societies and governments throughout the world, not just within the United States.  The play questioned what it means to be politically correct in respect to the ever present fight for justice and equality within the world today.