Deportment is a searing satire of racial and sexual hatred, hypocrisy, and good manners in America. In Part I Alice is carefully taught all the socially correct forms of racism, homophobia, and sexism necessary to become a Southern Lady. In Part II she leaves the South and moves to New York City, where these attitudes are lived with open aggression.
Premiere: PS 122, New York City 1991
Direction and Choreography: Jane Comfort
Text: Jane Comfort, the Company, Emily Post and Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie
Sound: Jacob Burckhardt
Costume: Consultant George Hudacko
Original Cast: Nancy Alfaro, Jane Comfort, Mark Dendy, Andre Shoals, Scot Willingham
"Comfort constructed an evening of wit, anger, and violence pressed into focus by a script with dialogue that had her audience in its grasp...The ending leaves you numb with the realization that what Comfort sets before you is the plain Gawdawful truth."--Backstage
"Comfort faces brutal issues, uses words that are hard and offensive to hear, and doesn't try to heal any wounds. The acting/dancing performances are spectacular and right on the money."--Village Voice
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