In 'The Niceties,' office hours take on the feel of a boxing match

Office hours for a college professor might not seem like the most fruitful source of inspiration, but “The Niceties,” currently on stage at the Intiman Theater in Seattle, delivers.

It turns a feedback session into an electric and sometimes ugly exploration of race, privilege, and identity in academia.

It all starts when Zoe, a Black student at an elite East Coast liberal arts college, meets with her white professor to go over a paper she’s written about the American Revolutionary War.

Janine, her professor, pushes back against Zoe’s thesis: that a successful American revolution was only possible because of the existence of slavery.

Over the course of the play, both women are pushed to confront their own biases and generalizations about each others’ generations.

KUOW Arts and Culture reporter Mike Davis sat down with actor Amy Thone, who plays Janine in "The Niceties" and Jerald Pierce, Seattle Times arts and culture reporter, to dig into the show.