Honky Character Analysis

The production of Honky is a satirical comedy, following the lives of five people and the language of racism. While it focuses on the plot of 5 characters, the storyline was well thought out and intriguing. One actor in specific, Gerard Joseph, who played Thomas, did an exceptionally well job at conveying emotion and projecting to the audience, in my opinion. The overall directing, from the actors to the soundtrack and lightning, seem to be presented with excellent detail. Overall, this production was well done. Gerard Joseph, or better known as Thomas in the production, acted with extreme poise and tonal regard, considering the unique racial role in which he was cast. Joseph’s character was a black shoe designer, that dealt with an inner conflict on whether or not he himself is be considered “black enough” due to his privileged upbringing, in an affluent white neighborhood. While he exhumes a sense of proudness for his primary sales target (young black males), he still deals with the inner conflict of him feeling too white. Even though that was the character’s persona, I felt Joseph’s facial expressions, attitude, and prominent voice effectively brought this character to life. Joseph also obtained the dry sense of humor that dealt with race such as “You should have seen his face. I don’t think he could get any whiter” and “Its ok I can say that, I’m African American”. He knew his lines of dialogue and effectively portrayed the emotion and facial

While I watched this production from my laptop on PBS, I felt the blocking from the chairs and the characters was effective in showcasing their facials expressions. I never felt that an actor was blocking another. Furthermore, the director and playwright were exceptional in telling the story, because it ditched political correctness and created an opportunity to showcase racism from a marketing standpoint instead, all based off of a pair of basketball