A day of satire at Karamu House
By Trevion Johnson
Imagine a fictional Southern town, in the 1960s, where all the African-Americans in town suddenly disappear for an entire day. The Karamu House brought this idea to the stage in a play titled “Day of Absence,” written by Douglas Turner Ward, which ran from Oct. 25 to Nov.18. The often joyful gathering place became a little less joyful during this time.
Before the performance on Nov. 17, happy country music played in the small theater. The stage was decorated with three Confederate flags painted on the very patriotic set. Red, white and blue lights shined on two wooden chairs that were set the on stage. The audience was excited but confused about what was about to take place. Even with a primarily African-American audience, excitement spread throughout the theater. The audience members murmured back and forth to one another, anticipating what was to come.
As the lights dimmed, the murmurs ceased. When the lights came back on, the previously happy crowd grew very tense in a matter of seconds, after the first character appeared on stage wearing whiteface. All the characters were portrayed by African-American actors. All the actors were in whiteface to portray the Caucasian characters in the fictional town. However, the audience soon started to buy into this world, once the characters started to act as if they were in a Saturday morning cartoon. Witnessing their overly expressive faces and gestures and the over-the-top patriotic costumes, the audience began to understand and enjoy the play.
The play focuses on how the white citizens react and cope with the absence of their African-American fellow citizens. As time progresses in the play, it becomes clear that the town cannot function without the black citizens. The remaining townspeople hunt the missing African-Americans like slaves, make threats and crude remarks showing that even though the town is relatively modern, there has been no change in the treatment of African-Americans or women. Both were seen as “unmeaningful” before their disappearance, even though it is obvious they are essential to the functioning and general wellbeing of the town.
According to the Karamu House program, Ward wrote this satirical play 53 years ago as a “reverse minstrel show,” in which the actors make light of the concept of blackface shows by doing whiteface. It flips the whole power structure of the minstrel shows on its head, depicting the whites as the silly ones instead of the blacks. This is evident in the show’s ending.
The play ends with all the black citizens returning to the town the next day. One black deliveryman comes to talk to two Caucasian citizens, who were present at the beginning of the play and witnessed the initial disappearance. The deliveryman denies the townsfolks’ claims of the African- Americans’ disappearance. As the deliveryman exits, he gives the audience a knowing wink and a nod. The townsfolk dismiss what occurred the previous day and continue about their day, claiming, “Everything is back to normal.”
After the show, the cast held a question-and-answering session for any audience members that wanted clarification or to have a discussion. The cast asked the audience what they thought of the show. The audience all seemed to have enjoyed it.
After a series of questions, an audience member asked what messages the cast hoped to get a across to the audience and how this play connects to today’s times. Before the cast could answer another audience member, Judy Wells, responded with “same thing, nothing has changed.” This seemed like a random comment at first, but the cast took that comment and made it into an in-depth discussion. Actress Jailyn Harris said the play “should serve as a mirror to the whole audience. … Look at your place in the system.”
The cast went on to discuss issues that are currently going on in America, such as the immigration crisis and racial prejudice. However, despite today’s problems, cast members said they were still glad to see how much progress has been made since the 1960s and they seemed very excited for what’s to come.
During the discussion, cast members stressed that everyone is meaningful, even the ones that have “meaningless jobs.” Actress Sherrie Toliver stated that everyone should “treat your janitor like your CEO.” The cast said they would like everyone to follow this rule because if everyone is shown respect and kindness, more progress will be made toward having a more accepting and equal society in the future.
