“Twilight,” Anna Deavere Smith

November 5, 2007.

“Twilight”, a one-woman show performed by Anna Deavere Smith displays several different views of the frustrations experienced by people around Los Angeles after the results of the Rodney King case were announced. What I really enjoy about this film is the range of characters Smith plays. Although some or her performances are quite cartoonie (ie. the Korean woman) the overall message Smith is going for is much more important. According to Carol Martin’s interview with Anna Smith, she tires to “capture the personality of a place by attempting to embody its varied population and varied points of view in one person”- herself (46). It is very important that she has decided to show all points of view of an issue.

I hate to make the comparison, but “Twilight” reminds me of the film “Crash” (2004) directed by Paul Haggis. This is probably because both document different stories of similar occurrences. The comparison is also related to the portrayal of race relations within the Los Angeles area. However, what is most different is that Smith speaks for all racial groups, performing their most stereotypical and over-the-top personalities to get their messages across.

I find her overtly stereotypical and over-the-top performance of a personality to be somewhat problematic. She does this in her performances of the Korean people and black men. In the article, “Is Race a Trope? Anna Deavere Smith and the Question of Racial Performativity,” I find the final comment to be particularly interesting especially when applied to the content in the film. Smith refers to race as a trap—“a trap constructed by and upholding racism. And yet racism cannot simply be done away with my deeming the concept of race as a mere trap that we shouldn’t fall into, and that we can avoid by not invoking ‘race’. Race is a very real identity category which has become systemic, so to ignore racism would be to allow systemic racism to continue as it is.” The conclusion to the article congratulates Smith’s use of racial identity in her acting as performative. Be this as it may, I still believe Smith’s performing of race is problem because it relies on stereotypes.

I guess the question would then be, how should we act? If we decide not to perform race, are we considered “white-washed”? I know this is somewhat off topic to the film, but I think it’s important to ask? Is race performance imbedded so deeply that it’s all we know? It seems that the emphasis that Smith places on performing races brings their occurrence to the forefront.

The film “Twilight” shows the many faces and opinions of those who lived in LA at the time of the King verdict. Smith performs all of these while perpetuating problematic stereotypes of race.