EMMA and MAX by Todd Solondz - A Racially Explosive Black Comedy that Turns Extremely Dark

Todd Solondz is an independent film screenwriter and director ("Wiener Dog" 'starring Tracy Letts, Greta Gerwig & Danny Devito).  EMMA and MAX marks Solondz playwriting debut premiering at the FLEA Theater.  The play is a black comedy and social satire blazing with wit aimed at reckless self-indulgent white privilege.  Brooke (Ilana Becker) and Jay (Matt Servito) are an affluent white couple and parents to toddlers Emma and Max.  The play begins with a tense & comical scene in which the couple are firing the current black caregiver, Brittany (a  tour-de-force performance by Zonya Love).  Brooke & Jay fire Brittany while praising her and shelling out 3 months severance in a loaded envelope.  Brittany painstakingly counts out the bills with comic effect.  Despite pleading for her job & offering to switch deodorants, the couple have already hired a young, white au pair from Europe.  The stress of dismissing Brittany is so upsetting for Brooke it requires the couple take a vacation.  Their destination is Barbados the Island from which Brittany was born.  Brooke & Jay bask in the sun and are blinded by their delusional justifications as to their liberal open-mindedness.  Solondz skillful satirical edginess is brilliant.  Brooke calls Brittany and asks her to guess where she is - "someplace with a B" -  Bergdorf's answers a bewildered Brittany.  During their stay, Jay dreams he's speaking to Brittany recounting his noble act while toiling at a McDonalds as the sole white employee.  He's gloating over getting a middle-aged employee arrested for presumed sexual deviance.  Brooke & Jay's preposterous behaviors are hilarious, cringeworthy uncovering the detritus of their insular daily lives.  The set changes are plodding and all manned by Brittany.  The clever scenic design adds depth and fluidity.  The final act takes a drastic & deeply disturbing turn.  Brittany is lying on a prison cot being interviewed by an opportunist reporter. Brittany speaks of her love for white children but her hatred for the cruel & stupid adults they'll become.  She tells of being raped & impregnated by a former white employer.  Brittany employer's entitled white privilege is comparable to a plantation owner's mentality.  Her horrendous treatment &  profound sufferings purportedly lead to the heinous crimes she commits.  The acting by the cast is first rate especially by Ms. Love.  Playwright Solondz's EMMA and MAX fathoms provocative social satire.  We're drawn in with wry observational humor but left drowning by the pernicious & systemic undertow of white affluent privilege.