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White is Pea Dinneen’s satirical jab at the workings of fragile masculinity, machoism and white male supremacy, which lay bare the shadow of the wounded man. The play centres itself around Rich White’s (Kevin Cleary) attempt to create and run a men’s activist group on a university campus under the distraction of a ‘Knitting and Crochet Society’. As he gathers members in an apostolic attempt to have “men like us helping men like us”, a Muslim student is shot dead, a gun procured, and a lot of unexplained rage becomes interrogated. Through the often directionless yet frantic outbursts of her four male characters, Dinneen navigates the tension of repressed male expression by dramatizing anger as the most familiar channel of emotional ventilation. White’s anthem and go-to question for assessing the masculinity of her followers is “What angers you?” mapping the emotion onto their very status as males.

Cleary, who explodes onto the stage with an energetic coke-sniffing one-man show, plays his character with a pomposity, confidence and narcissism reminiscent of the Trump administration. Throughout the play, he attempts to direct the raging emotions of the group towards his obsession of constructing a world which already exists – one that includes and supports men (at the usual cost of excluding others.) As this obsession is incited and shared, it becomes the one thing able to grow beyond the egos of these characters, and takes centre stage through repetitive patterns and symbols of performed masculinity, like handshakes as “the mark of all men” being religiously performed and revered.  Excluding White, it is interesting to note how all of the other characters do not necessarily step into the group fanaticized (despite their own personal issues and feelings towards women) and exhibit moments of self-consciousness about the extremity of their statements. However, these moments appear only in snippets throughout the play, as they slip back into agreement with the most dominant rage in the room.

Dinneen juxtaposes the idea of the Alpha and Beta male through her two protagonists, only to debunk the false myth of their differentiation – the same toxic rage is housed by both. The play manages to pull back and show the mental instability behind that rage, as compounded feelings of emasculation, rejection, and fear of being anything other than white and male seem to constantly poke at the constructed loudness and robustness they don. However, there is little change or catharsis for any of the characters, as they do not manage to have any of these self-revelations occur to them – all they are able to do is point to a wound that was obvious from the get-go despite the fact that their flurries of speech attempted to conceal them.

Had Dinneen allowed more fluidity, pacing, and self-reflection within the play, she may have allowed her characters to do the same. Lastly, though supposedly set in Dublin, the play seemed immersed in the American political climate touching on school shootings, hijabs, freedom of speech, and censorship, rather than bringing to light more relevant aspects of Irish toxic masculinity,  such as lad culture and sexual assault on college campuses across Ireland.

 

White runs at Smock Alley Theatre until 16 September as part of Dublin Fringe Festival.