Honky Character Analysis

The production of Honky is a satirical comedy, following the lives of five people and the language of racism. While it focuses on the plot of 5 characters, the storyline was well thought out and intriguing. One actor in specific, Gerard Joseph, who played Thomas, did an exceptionally well job at conveying emotion and projecting to the audience, in my opinion. The overall directing, from the actors to the soundtrack and lightning, seem to be presented with excellent detail. Overall, this production was well done.
Gerard Joseph, or better known as Thomas in the production, acted with extreme poise and tonal regard, considering the unique racial role in which he was cast. Joseph’s character was a black shoe designer, that dealt with an inner conflict on whether or not he himself is be considered “black enough” due to his privileged upbringing, in an affluent white neighborhood. While he exhumes a sense of proudness for his primary sales target (young black males), he still deals with the inner conflict of him feeling too white. Even though that was the character’s persona, I felt Joseph’s facial expressions, attitude, and prominent voice effectively brought this character to life. Joseph also obtained the dry sense of humor that dealt with race such as “You should have seen his face. I don’t think he could get any whiter” and “Its ok I can say that, I’m African American”. He knew his lines of dialogue and effectively portrayed the emotion and facial

expressions that accompanied each line, which allowed the audience to have a clear understanding of the scene. He and the majority of the other actors could clearly be heard and had successful enunciation for this production of Honky. One actress however, that I didn’t feel was effective in portraying her role, was Jacque Wilke as Andie. The majority of the time I felt her laugh and voice was rather forced more than sincere. I especially felt uncomfortable when watching the exchange between her and Joseph, when they met at the bar and were both imitating each other. While I still loved Joseph’s performance in this scene, Wilke’s body language, facial expressions, and tone made me cringe.
The directing style of Sam Woodhouse was very detailed oriented.

While I watched this production from my laptop on PBS, I felt the blocking from the chairs and the characters was effective in showcasing their facials expressions. I never felt that an actor was blocking another. Furthermore, the director and playwright were exceptional in telling the story, because it ditched political correctness and created an opportunity to showcase racism from a marketing standpoint instead, all based off of a pair of basketball

shoes.
While it was hard for me to criticize the lighting and sound of a theatre production made for TV, I felt a better point to analyze was the costumes, by Valerie Henderson. Overall, I personally do not have too many criticisms for the set and design, as it was successful from what I could tell and grasp from a television screen.
Nonetheless, I felt that the director’s casting choices, set design, and lighting for the most part, truly fit the play and the direction he wanted it to be seen. Overall, I did enjoy Woodhouse’s concept and the course in which he took this show, as it could have been distastefully done considering the racial conflict that ensued. While I wasn’t impressed by every actor and actress that came across the stage, I still felt that the powerful characters such as Joseph, made up for the weaker ones.