Force Continuum Analysis

“Politics can’t change the human heart; theatre can”, Athol Fugard. In the recent years, much police misconduct and violence primarily towards African Americans has surfaced the front pages of newspapers in the United States. It has become a major issue for the society to work towards equality in regards to race, sexuality and sexuality among other aspects in the modern day. The play ‘Force Continuum’, as authored by Kia Corthron, tackles this major concern and challenge. As highlighted, the play revolves around what it means to be a police officer in the United States and their responsibility. The play focuses on Dece, a third generation African-American police officer, and his family in New York that encounters a variety of incidents throughout
his career among other white police officers. As the director of Force Continuum which was performed at the Jones Theatre by the University of Washington School of Drama, said, “Force makes one to question why they are in a seemingly helpless cycle of police violence in America”. This aspect was shown throughout the play while it was interesting to see how the white police officers were portrayed. Flip, as played by Aaron Cammack, is a white male police officer who was also the partner of Dece. He played an important role as the white officer who potentially represented the majority white police officers in our society. Along the play, we see the different aspects of Flip especially in regard to his character development, his distinctive relationships with each of the characters he encountered as well as his sole intentions as a police officer. First, we see Flip’s character develop predominantly through his interaction with his partner Dece. In the scene with Dece in their police car, we learn that Flip resembled many other people in his age. He’s seen as a New Yorker in his 30s, and a family man with two children in kindergarten. He was constantly presented with clear visual props that he is a police officer, carried a gun on his right waist and always wore his badge. Flip was perceived to act quite casually and comfortable during scenes with white people or white officials. However, he becomes tensed and anxious with his voice and actions when with Dece or with any other person of color. As we saw during the scene where an African-American was arrested for running a red light, his voice would suddenly become frazzled when instantly pushed responsibility towards Dece. Nevertheless, he tried to still keep his composure and authoritative force over the situation at hand. Flip’s relationship with each characters varied differently and can be categorized in three groups. First with Dece, the body language and voice which Flip offered appeared to show an uneasy setting on the job with his partner. Flip continuously delegated the conversation by himself, while Dece never contributed significantly to the conversation, Flip still spoke in a loud voice with a tensed impression in his voice. A significant aspect of this relationship was the fact that he is always quick to try to clarify that he is not having racist. On the other hand, while with white officials, Flip is completely different than how he acts with Dece. With Fuller, a white female official, Flip is seen to be thoroughly comfortable and presenting his true personality. It revealed that he was significantly more trusted of this space. He would be much more relaxed and doing his own thing, though still acts respectful to the person. Lastly, similarly to his relationship with Dece, Flip’s relationship with other colored people appeared to be quite chaotic. He acts exceptionally uneasy around them, usually suspicious of all their movements. Thus leading to his quick use of violence towards them, drawing their attention towards his right hip where his gun is holstered. Though he showed that his actions were not what he intended to do as the end result, his natural instinct is shown as that of a white police officer. Throughout the play we saw many sides of Flip’s personality.
However there is a distinctive goal he tried to accomplish. The super objective for Flip is depicted as that of a “good” police officer. He indicated that he does not want to be misjudged by the people or seen as a stereotypical white police officer but he is too afraid and always reliant on force and violence. He is exposed numerous of times reaching for his right hip rather than this left hip where the pepper spray is stored. Furthermore, he does not want to hold accountability for any death or wrong doing. This is shown in scenes where he tried to do the “right” things but eventually pushed the responsibility to Dece. However, due to the death of Mrai, caused by Dece and himself, he was revealed as unable to comprehend and felt let down by himself. This led to his act of committing suicide due his inability not able contain
blame. Finally, Arron Cammack played the character Flip really well.
Though across the play there was time where the actors would sound like they were unable to articulate therefore hard to understand what was said. Nevertheless, Flip was really able to portray what seems to be what white police officers encounter in the modern days with the spotlight on them observing each of their moves. They all desire to be the “good” police officers. However, in the United States, it seemed to be that officers’ natural instinct is to rely on violence. Overall the set and set change was nicely done with in regards to the space they used as they were able to fully make use of it to its potential. The rusty grey looks of the set and rap music during set changes really gave the sense that they are in the “ghetto”. In addition, the use of live gunshots towards the end of the play, as used to show the pay’s climax, was very powerful effect to the audience. They were really able to send out a strong message and feel of what had occurred. With what has happened in recent years in concerns with police violence in the U.S., I would be curious and anxious to hear comments from the local police officers in regard to the
play.