‘Harmony Park’ is a place for everyone to gather and think about who they are
DETROIT, Michigan–Sometimes a small story can take on very big meaning. That is the case with Harmony Park, a world premiere by playwright Daniel Damiano now being presented by the Detroit Repertory Theatre through May 20.
Ernie (Harold Uriah) is an African American 6o-ish foreman leading a crew that is landscaping a new park in New York City on the site of a crime scene at which two teen girls, one white and one black, were raped and killed. Mike (Aaron Kottke), a young, white protégé admires Ernie and looks upon him (though he is loathe to admit it) as a substitute father for the one that ran out on him and his Mother. Sam (Mark Bishop) enters the crew, now working for the city after six years landscaping for a private company. Sam comes to the park with a secret in his past. Rounding out the story is Jose (Sam Ajluni), the nervous, Latino father of six who rounds out the crew.
Ultimately, Sam’s secret will drive a wedge between Ernie and Mike. But the real story and conflict in Harmony Park is the delicate balance between whites and African Americans, especially when a black person is in the higher, supervisory position. The play also explores what can happen from peer pressure when racism is swirling around.
Damiano’s script draws on real events that occurred in New York City between police and a suspect–an event that made headlines several years ago, but has dimmed in the minds of most in New York (unless, perhaps you happen to be black). His dialogue writing is mostly very good, but could use some fine-tuning. At times, Ernie’s dialogue comes across preachy and unnatural. But this does not detract from the total flow of the story. In Act 2, when Ernie’s rage is unleashed, Uriah rises to the scene and the change in tempo of the story is handled well by the entire cast, and wakes up the somewhat sleepy pace of the play to that point.
Directed by Barbara Busby, Harmony Park’s set design is simple but does the job. The painted trees hold up and the Rep stage is transformed into a park, with set pieces spinning around to serve as a bar when the story needs to move.
Uriah’s Ernie strikes the right notes as the black man who grew up in the Bronx and chose “the road less traveled,” compared with some of the guys he grew up with. He’s a widow, comfortable with his single-hood, but shows a bone-deep loneliness in the delivery of his lines that permeates his prideful smiles. Kottke has some positive turns as Mike, and is at his best when he seems to almost forget he is supposed to be from Queens. His face often contorts to deliver his lines out of the lower corner of his mouth, a seeming homage to, or channeling of, Rodney Dangerfield? Speaking as a native of New York, it’s a stereotype of Queens that would be better toned down. But Kottke’s character journey as Mike is one of the story’s more charming developments.
Harmony Park feels like a small, small play in Act One. But as the story gets kick-started and changes gears, the strength of the play drives up on the audience like a car that nearly hits you, tapping into powerful, everyday feelings and manifestations of racism that happen in our workplaces, even if they don’t rise to the level of media attention to appear on the front-page or the evening news.