Sponsored by Tukwut Life, The Civility Campaign and the University Student Union Activities Board, the critically acclaimed courtroom drama Defamation, was presented in Arts 111 on Feb. 17.

The play’s premise revolves around a civil suit where a South Side African-American woman, Regina Wade, sues Jewish North Shore real estate developer, Arthur Golden, for defamation.

The main issue at hand is whether or not Wade was wrongly accused of stealing Golden’s watch and causing her financial harm in the process. This is where the twist comes in, the audience acts as the jury.

From its weighty start to its explosive finish, the play does an excellent job at setting the tone with its ornery judge and cunning attorneys. It is evident that the cast as a whole is well versed in their respective roles, as at times, the line starts to blur between the cast member and their character.

Although, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to audience members, the cast excels in a multitude of ways. Every member of Defamation has an extensive history in the field of theater with the credentials to back it up.

Once the deliberation took place within the audience, a large majority voted in favor of Wade. The post-show discussion, much like the play itself, led to several different topics of race, bias, gender and socioeconomics.

The conversation on bias was especially interesting, the audience had recognized a commonality, they found it difficult to separate bias in deciding who to vote in favor of.

“I personally don’t think we can ever be truly objective because I think somewhere in the back of our subconscious mind, those biases are sewed underneath,” said a CSUSM student.

The topic of the conversation then shifted into how race tends to creep into the jury’s deliberation process.

A caucasian audience member explained that he had a slight concern of being viewed negatively by other audience members if he voted in favor of the white male over the African-American female. His observation further enforced the idea that race plays a significant role in the courtroom whether we like it or not.

Jeri Marshall, the cast member who was moderating the discussion, wrapped everything up by addressing the significance of having difficult social conversations.

Marshall recalled that a woman from a previous show expressed her viewpoint on having critical conversations. The woman explained that until more groups of people from different races and socioeconomic statuses start conversations, the progress towards understanding one another on a civil level will be slow.