Goodman, Alliance Theatre premiere Zora Howard’s keenly observed tale of racism and rage

“Bust” — 3 stars

In “Bust,” a keenly observed new play about racism and rage, the characters want what most people want: to feel safe; to not worry about how they stand, what they wear, and whether they walk too fast or too slow; to simply be where they are without fearing someone is after them. Sadly, those are privileges Zora Howard’s characters, Black Southerners suffering the burden of systemic racism, rarely enjoy.

An all-too-familiar story with a fantastical twist, “Bust,” co-produced by Goodman Theatre and Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, is a visceral, disquieting yet funny tale.

The action unfolds in a Huntsville, Alabama, apartment complex where the genial Retta (the irresistibly authentic Caroline Stefanie Clay) sits on her balcony gossiping on the phone with a friend while husband Reggie (the equally genuine Ray Anthony Thomas) drinks a beer and smokes a joint. While waiting for their teenage grandson Trent (Cecil Blutcher) to return from basketball practice, they notice their neighbor Randy Woods (Keith Randolph Smith) pulling into the parking lot trailed by police officers. Tomlin (Mark Bedard, whose performance elevates a one-dimensional role) is a veteran of the police department who has a few demerits on his record. He’s partners with by-the-book Ramirez (Jorge Luna), a new transfer from another department.

Exiting their car, the officers confront Randy offstage during what Retta’s tension-filled narration depicts as an increasingly heated exchange. Arriving home, Trent captures on his cellphone a confrontation (which occurs offstage) that goes viral in which Tomlin pulls his gun on Randy. At that point, one might expect the altercation to conclude as its real-life counterparts have concluded, which is to say tragically, with a person of color dead at the hands of a law enforcement officer. Howard, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, confounds expectations in an intriguing way by introducing a glitch in the space-time continuum (ably conveyed by sound, lighting and special effects designers Mikaal Sulaiman, Yi Zhao and Jeremy Chernick, respectively) that prevents Randy’s deep-seated, righteous fury from becoming fatal.

Revealing more would spoil the play, which posits what might happen if oppressed people had an outlet to express anger born of a lifetime of oppression, which for Smith’s Randy is rooted in the childhood trauma of watching white men beat his father to death. Forced to “make himself small” to survive, he spent a lifetime taking up less space than he deserved.

He recognizes the same suppressed rage in Blutcher’s Trent, who moves from supporting player to principal in the second act following a second space-time shift.

While Howard provides Retta and Reggie with her most comical monologues, she reserves her meatiest speeches for Trent, whose understated eloquence befits his role as the play’s sage, as well as the ideal easygoing everyteen, who acknowledges his own outrage in a rafter-rattling howl he shares with Randy.

Lileana Blain-Cruz’s direction is sharp and snappy. Her cast, which features the terrific Ivan Cecil Walks as Trent’s funny, self-aware and socially conscious best pal Boobie, is first-rate. It includes Renika Williams-Blutcher as Krystal, a budding physicist and Trent’s crush; Bernard Gilbert and Victoria Omoregie as fellow classmates Zeke and Paige; and Caitlin Hargraves as an overreactive high school history teacher.

With a notable exception, designer Matt Saunders’ expressive set consists of large, rectangular boxes that slide across the stage. Inside are various locales: Retta and Reggie’s floral-inspired apartment, a sterile police locker room and a nondescript high school classroom. Saunders’ design reflects people who are literally boxed in, constrained by race and circumstance.

Only in that liminal place outside the space-time continuum (a consequence of the aforementioned glitch) do those walls come down, providing for at least some of these characters a safe place to breathe, a safe place to be.

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Location: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, (312) 443-3800, goodmantheatre.org

Showtimes: 2 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday; 7:30 p.m. Friday; and 2 p.m. Sunday through May 18. Also, 7:30 p.m. May 7, 14 and 18

Running time: About two hours, with intermission

Tickets: $25-$85

Rating: For adults, contains strong language, mature themes, violence and racial slurs