'The White Card: A Play' was written in 2019 by Claudia Rankine, and has this week come to Newcastle's Northern Stage, directed by Natalie Ibu.
After leaving a production of 'The White Card', an audience is left with no doubt over who the play was directed at. As a white woman myself, I wondered if I was the best person to review this play at all. However, as the play illustrates, even the most 'woke' amongst us often need reminding of our own whiteness, and the inherent privilege that comes with our skin colour. One of the final, and most pungent lines of the play comes from the main character, Charlotte (Estella Daniels), a black artist who encourages Charles (Matthew Pidgeon), a wealthy, white, building foundation owner. She tells him to 'look at' his 'own whiteness', rather than overanalysing 'blackness' in his 'white saviour' quest to improve society. This sentiment is extended to the audience, with mirrors being held up from the stage towards the end of the play.
She tells him to 'look at' his 'own whiteness', rather than overanalysing 'blackness' in his 'white saviour' quest to improve society
To anyone who has not seen this play, the themes tackled might seem confusing, and even depressing. However, I found the tone of the play to be subtle, and even humorous in parts, keeping me hooked throughout the ninety minutes. Even though the play is American and focuses around the murder of black people by the police and white supremacists, the messages are certainly applicable to a British audience too. After all, many of us would not like to accept that out entire country is built on ideologies of empire, white supremacy and black inhumanity, even if the majority of us would never associate with these ideals today. This inward feeling is directly reflected in the play, with Charles consistently emphasising to Charlotte that he is not one of the racist ones. He takes any comment about is own whiteness, and what that means, as a personal attack, a trait which we consistently see in our own society.
The majority of the play is set around a dinner party, Charles' wealthy, white family (and family friend) invite Charlotte for dinner, with the interest of purchasing a piece of artwork from her, and even funding her future endeavours. An audience quickly realises that these intentions are not as innocent as they may seem. To begin, Charles is an avid collector of 'black art', even an autopsy report of a black man shot by police. He states at the very beginning of the play that 'not all the artists (in his collection) are African American, but all the work considers the violence against them'. Throughout the play, an audience is led to consider the reasons as to why black Americans considered 'African American' rather than just 'American' by Charles's family, a microcosm of much of white society. The black experience is characterised entirely through them being either 'criminal' or 'victims', as Charlotte articulates towards the end of the play. While, on the other hand, 'whiteness is propped up at every turn', and race is not considered central to the identity of white people.
I found Rankine's play to be an extremely humbling, refreshing lesson into modern institutional racism. An audience is led to consider what place white people have in the fight against racism. This is articulated through the younger son of the family, Alex (CJ Coleman), and his participation in the Black Lives Matter movement. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with his activism, however, as the play progresses, an audience begins to question the true intentions behind his 'wokeness'. We witness the disturbing way in which Alex sees blackness and racism everywhere, even when it is not relevant. His mother, Virginia (Kate Copeland), disappears in tears over the incarceration of her older son, and he immediately labels them 'white tears'. This visibly disturbs the character of Charlotte, who points out that this has nothing to do with racism.
Throughout the play, an audience is led to consider the reasons as to why black Americans considered 'African American' rather than just 'American'
What struck me as most disturbing was the family's consistent 'othering' of Charlotte. She is assumed to represent all black people in the conversations at dinner ('your people'), and yet it is also assumed that she is not at risk of being shot by police. Presumably, her proximity to this middle-class white family makes her more 'palatable', and protected, in the white characters' eyes. We gain direct access into Charlotte's inner turmoil during this, particularly when Eric (Nick Blakeley), a family friend in the dinner, reminds her that Charles can financially further her career. The assumption being that Charlotte will only be successful with the help of a white man's money, a man who merely wants to aestheticise 'black death'. Yet at the end of the play, Charles meets Charlotte a year later in her studio, she has excelled despite her refusal of his help.
In a way, each member of the family embodies a different kind of racial micro-aggression. I have already discussed the overly woke, white saviourism of Alex, and less extensively, Charles. Alex is particularly reminiscent of reality, as he is so aware of racial issues that he doesn't allow others, even his own family, to learn. He is entirely judgemental and unhelpful. Yet Virginia, his mother, is increasingly less subtle in her opinion that it just isn't their fight. She consistently suggests that Charlotte and other black people exaggerate racial issues. Her whiteness blinds her to how institutional and social racism means black people 'live precariously', in Charlottes's words, and she doesn't. Before the play begins, we see a black maid setting up the dinner party on set, who then conveniently disappears as the play begins. The audience later learns that her dismissal for the night was a conscious choice from the family, due to Charlotte's visit. It is obvious that they wish to appear above everyone else due to their awareness of racial issues, when they are in fact implicit in them. As the debate at dinner reaches its peak, Virginia explodes 'sit down Charlotte, you're not the maid', when she tries to help. Despite all attempts to hide racial micro-aggressions, and the families own part in institutional racism, it shines through clearly to the audience, and Charlotte. Even Charles's 'foundation' primarily profits form the building of prisons, and by extension, the mass incarceration of black people in America. The irony exposes itself at every turn.
In a way, each member of the family embodies a different kind of racial micro-aggression
Ultimately, The White Card teaches us the cataclysmic differences in the lives of black and white people in America, but also Britain. The white family feel guilty for their whiteness, and when a black person is killed by the police, they feel helpless. Yet Charlotte could actually be killed for nothing other than her skin colour. However, this does not mean that the play distances white people from people of colour. In fact, the ending sees Charles's realisation that his 'skin' is nothing more than just that. He has never even thought about it until his conversation in Charlotte's studio. The play ends with the emphasis that skin colour should not be a directive of our society, but a recognition that, unfortunately, it is, and that this cannot be simply brushed under the dinner table.