Conservationist, The

As the program claims, Mark Wheatley may be "one of London's leading playwrights," but the only thing I've ever seen of his was written for TV. For The Conservationist he seems to have a whole season of episodes in mind. There's so much STUFF about race relations, mixed- raced couples and offspring, academic vs. "real life" perceptions of the foregoing, and parent-child relationships, laced with traces of the results of feminist and sexual liberations! Yet, there's such s-l-o-w unraveling of exposition that bridges of percussion often serve as incentives not to snooze.

To make things worse, it's hard to care about either the business or parental problems of shallow Robert, though he is shown caring about his son and with a bit of charm by Bryan Whitcomb. Mostly, though, he's bellyaching about his unseen, black ex-wife who wants sole custody of their son and who communicates through her friend and Robert's black lawyer-partner, Valerie. She (lovely, lithe Montego Glover) seems to have also had a relationship with Robert, one of several parallels in Wheatley's very "constructed"play. There's also the one between the ditzy young white office assistant Christine (cute and comic Lauren Orkus) who goes out with Robert's son Shawn (effective Porter Lee Anderson). Another is between Robert and his father, done to a swagger by Dean Anthony, a prejudiced Irish-American who left wife and son and now, deathly ill, wants to get back in Robert's good graces. He also wants Robert to learn about their (he thinks) Irish Catholic background, just as Robert wants Shawn to not become black-only by choosing to live solely with his mother in New Jersey.

Still more: Christine and Shawn rehearse Othello together at about the same time that Robert almost rapes Valerie -- after they share a passionate kiss. At various points, Robert's current lover Addie (Heather Corwin, white and wonderful -- especially considering she has little to do but be pretty and act lively) rushes in and out between business trips. Is her persuading Robert they ought to live together a parallel to what Robert tries with Shawn? Like Robert's unseen ex-wife, there is a talked-about current beau with whom Valerie moves in, a black professor in black American studies. There's yet a time when she and Addie discuss the advantages of living alone in one's own place. With all these complications, Shawn weaves between thinking blacks are different while he wants to fit in with his school mates who find him not black enough and wanting to be more with his grandfather and to know more about his ancestry.

Throughout the hodgepodge of Big Questions on Race Issues, the most activity to be seen is in the constantly changing modular sets, yet only Robert and Valerie's office is well defined. Weirdly, it is without a computer, multiple phones, or any other supplies usually connected with an office. Granted theirs is a small business, and they dress very casually; she's usually in jeans.

Despite good performances, both production and play are hard to take seriously, let alone without No-Doz.