the wooster group

so the wooster group, a NYC theater troupe, is staging o'neill's "the emperor jones," itself not exactly, um, unproblematic in its depiction of Black men, using a white woman in blackface. and the acclaim that's getting is bugging the hell out of me.

the new york times: http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/03/14/theater/reviews/14empe.html?pagewanted=all

there was also a review in the 3.27 new yorker, which is similarly uncritical.

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/content/articles/060327crth_theatre

apparently the wooster group did a show in blackface in 1981 and had its NEA funding revoked. a quote from the new yorker i found particularly troubling:

"After the première of “Route 1 & 9,” the National Endowment for the Arts revoked the Wooster Group’s funding. And one can see why: the Group’s audience is largely white. Were the actors making fun of blacks, or just crapping on the artistically limited notion of political correctness? Watching video clips of that performance, one misses the sad irony that LeCompte brings to this production. Here she poses the question: Minstrel shows, avant-garde theatre, is there a difference? And can we not learn from both elements of the American theatrical tradition? Just as the Playwrights’ Theatre provided a home for O’Neill’s early work, the Wooster Group provides a home for its contemporary interpretation. In the end, their version of the work is not so different from O’Neill’s: they show us the sea of deception and pretense we all swim in, while searching for the self that is waiting there at the water’s edge, if only we could see it. "

i don't agree. at all. but i'm curious about other folks' reactions.