Not all Skinheads are created equal. Back in the 1980s and early '90s, a group called SHARP—Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice—split off from the neo-Nazi Skins who embraced violence against just about anyone who represented cultural diversity. L.A. SHARP Skins flourished only for a short time, but other SHARP Skins groups have continued in cities worldwide. These warriors against violence, and for racial harmony, were inspired by the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. and by ska, a dance music genre imported from Jamaica.
Alyson Croft's play goes inside the L.A. chapter of SHARP, a group paying lip service to building bridges between races. Despite lofty conversations and a bottomless keg in Drea's (Nicola Seixas) backyard, the play never surpasses a superficial self-righteousness that doesn't generate peaceful relations among the members of the group. Croft's play, generally articulate, has trouble finding its core. She doesn't take her thesis deeper than petty bickering over leadership of the group and intra-personal rivalry. The tension here isn't about fighting racial prejudice but about whose ideas are the best. Drea, the group leader, Russell (Morgan Margolis), Dex (Adam Driver), Reggie (Marc Wilson), and Wyleen (Missy Doty) are terminally angry with one another as much as, or more than, they are with a racist society. The pregnant Emily (Croft in a fun performance) provides the humor in the piece, but her situation—a mostly absent boyfriend (Mat Hostetler) who wants her to accompany him on his band's Japanese tour, with their new baby—is just a risible deflection. When Nester Jr. (a dangerously sexy Christopher Warren) shows up to interview the team for a magazine, something should come together, but more red herrings are thrown into the mix, which causes the other main thesis to become just another branch of this heavily limbed tree. The drama of the starkly jarring opening scene, which is the real story, promises more than the play fulfills. Glimpses of what might have been are lost in a plethora of triviality that derails the real drama that's aching to get out.
Anthony Barnao's direction is lackluster and unfocused, and heavy, unnecessary scene changes only serve to slow things down to an irritating crawl. This isn't a throwaway play, but it needs refocusing in order not to become one.
"L.A. Sharp Skins," presented by Blue Sphere Alliance at the Lex, 6760 Lexington Ave., Hollywood. Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m. Nov. 14-Dec. 20. $15. (323) 957-5782.