The Royale: a theatrical knockout
31 Oct 2018

by Drew Rowsome - Photos by Carin Lowerison

Will You Be My Friend is billed as a musical comedy, and upon arriving the audience is offered candy from a bowl and is given a survey to fill out. The survey requests basic information and there is a section labelled a "White Benefit Test." Then, before the show starts, a warning about strong language is repeated and we are informed that all the performances are relaxed performances and that if anyone needs to leave, there is a calming station set up in the lobby. The prelude of sweet cajoling leading to trigger pushing is a perfect metaphor for Will You Be My Friend.

Performer/creator Janice Jo Lee has a gleeful half-smile that she uses to great effect. She doesn't just push triggers, she jumps on them with both feet and when they detonate into uproarious laughter, she unleashes that half-smile, too sweet to be smirk but almost, that simultaneously telegraphs, "Can you believe I said that?" and "Yes, I said that. And I meant it. And you know it's true."

Will You Be My Friend is very, very funny but the laughs are extremely political correct, far from politically correct, and lacerating. The show was originally titled Janice Lee and the White Supremacy Smackdown but, as Lee informs us, the title was changed so "white people would come." Lee, who is an extraordinary shapeshifter who morphs from character to character with subtle skill, begins in the guise of Dr West a space alien who runs the "Vanilla Integrity Research" centre. The doctor helps "humans of pigment" attain "enwhiteenment" through "erasure and integration."

By the time Dr West kicks into a song and dance number "Loving White People is Hard," complete with a top hat and cane and a hooky refrain - "Be grateful to be a token/But you got to do it/I'll help you through it/ If you want to survive" - the audience is captivated, convulsing with laughter, and has been offended in a sadly well-deserved way. Lee explores those uncomfortable spaces where we struggle to deal with, avoid dealing with, or screw up relating as humans, specifically because "melatonin levels" result in treating the other as other than human.

A "well-meaning" but clueless romantic suitor with a "white saviour" complex delivered a direct gut punch to me personally, from both directions, and the bff Leila delivered quips and asides that were offhand bitch slaps to every "white boy." Lee is never mean but she is blunt and devastatingly accurate. At the finale she instructs for the lights to come up, the doors to be locked, and she rips off the character masks and rips into a direct and pointed monologue that sums up the show and systematic racism without mercy. It is powerful, heartbreaking and infuriating while remaining very, very funny.

There is a fair amount of audience participation (which there is also a pre-show warning about) and Lee pulls it off with élan. As a performance piece, Will You Be My Friend is, betraying its roots in spoken word, astounding. As theatre, she and director Matt White (Bone Cage) juggle so many ideas and transitions that the momentum starts and stops, rescued only by Lee's raw comedic gifts, anger and charisma. The evening reaches its climax, and then keeps going with two more songs. The call and response number is unfortunately ill-advised, and while the final number is spectacularly performed, it dilutes the power of what came before and helps avoid Will You Be My Friend causing anyone to need to avail themselves of the calming station.

Lee is a remarkable, irresistible performer and Will You Be My Friend is required viewing in the midst of our current debacle of a tribal political climate. The entire audience would be honoured to be Lee's friend, none of us would be brave enough to believe we deserved to be.