WMUK s Gordon Bolar reviews the Face Off Theatre Company s production of Pipeline
The “pipeline” referenced in the title of Dominique Morisseau’s play is the system that disproportionately incarcerates young men of color for offenses in public or private schools.
Rather than examine the system itself, Morisseau focuses on the distress of two individuals: Nya, a single mother who teaches in an inner-city school, and her son, Omari, a student whose future is jeopardized by a fight he starts in class. The result is a riveting, stunning, and beautifully acted production, directed by Marissa Harrington, that yields insights into the values and choices made by an African American family trying to cope with an educational system that threatens to destroy them.