Upscale school revives a satire about race

Over the years, schools have celebrated Black History Month in myriad ways, but it's doubtful any staged a play that draws on the controversial genre of minstrel. Until now.

Earlier this month, seventh- and eighth-graders at the exclusive Noble and Greenough School performed Douglas Turner Ward's "Day of Absence." A satire first produced in 1965, the play reverses the tradition of "blackface" minstrel shows. Set in a sleepy Southern town, it puts actors in "whiteface" to show how lost whites would be if a racist fantasy came true and all the blacks suddenly, mysteriously disappeared.

Director Nina Freeman, a black graduate of the school, had hoped her mostly white cast might generate a flurry of discussion about race among playgoers - through their frequent usage of the term "nigra" on stage and depictions of pathetic white people unable to care for themselves. Yet those most changed by this provocative production may have been the provocateurs themselves.

"At our age, all we've done are happy plays like Cinderella, and this is a dark subject," said Caroline Eisenmann, a seventh-grader from Wellesley, Mass., as she took a break from folding programs before a final dress rehearsal.

"At first, we didn't want to do it, didn't want to say the word 'nigra'.... But we learned this is a way to bring a message. I hope [the audience] figures out this isn't a negative message."

Fears lurked near the surface among her fellow thespians-in-training. Maybe blacks in the audience would take offense at references to "darkies" or "jigaboos." Or whites would resent being portrayed as fumblers who couldn't change a diaper or cook an egg without help. Or maybe everyone would sigh impatiently at yet another lecture on the virtues of diversity.

"I'm sure I'll get comments, like, 'Enough of this white-bashing,' " said Ms. Freeman, a 22-year-old English and theater teacher. "Of course, I worry about it, but I'd rather that theater be provocative than predictable."

The students' production of "Day of Absence" opened with actors in white masks - a modified version of the original use of white face paint. Soon they lifted the masks, but they continued to caricature the white characters, whose panic spread with news that their nannies, garbage collectors, delivery persons, and switchboard operators had vanished.

As reality sank in, whites in top business and political positions promised to restore things "as they've always been." But when one attempt after another failed, actors crying out to the lost ones seemed schizophrenic - first pleading for the nigras' return, then fuming with anger at their audacity in leaving.

Tongue-in-cheek humor came with a sharp edge. A police officer, for instance, nicknamed "two-a-day Pete" for his track record of beating blacks daily, got hauled off to an asylum. "He was unable," a friend lamented, "to stand the shock of having his spotless slate sullied by interruption."

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