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<p class="MsoNormal"><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino">Morrison play highlights Black History month at
Karamu</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Roy Berko</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Palatino">(Member,
American Theatre Critics Association)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">At the start of the
Karamu production of THE BLUEST EYE we hear the voice of Shirley Temple
singing.<span style> </span>Yes, Shirley Temple, the
cute Caucasian child movie star with the curly blond hair and bright blue
eyes.<span style> </span>That song harbors what is to
come.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Toni Morrison, the author
of the book, THE BLUEST EYE, which was the basis of the play by the same name,
is a Nobel Prize winner.<span style> </span>She was
brought up in Lorain, Ohio, a blue collar city to the west of Cleveland, a city
mainly population by African Americans, Puerto Ricans and Hispanics who worked,
for many years, in the steel mills, ship building yards, and auto plants. <span style> </span>A city which in 1940, the year of
the play, was still segregated.<span style>
</span>Where Lakeview Park, a city facility on the shores of Lake Erie, banned
blacks.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">THE BLUEST EYE was
Morrison’s first book.<span style> </span>It was
written in 1970 while Morrison was teaching at Howard University.<span style> </span>Ironically, because the novel deals
with racism, incest and child molestation, there have been numerous attempts to
ban it from schools and libraries.<span style>
</span>In the 1980s, when I served on the Board of Education in Elyria, a
neighboring community to Lorain, a group of ministers had this title on the
list of books it wanted to be eliminated from the school curriculum.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The story centers on one
tragic year in the life of a young black girl.<span style> </span>We find eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove verbally abused and
the victim of childhood incest.<span style>
</span>She is continually being told and reminded by her mother of what an
“ugly” girl she is.<span style> </span>She blames her
horrible existence on her dark skin and brown eyes. If only she could have blue
eyes, like Shirley Temple, love would follow.<span style> </span>For part of that year she lives with a neighborhood family
whose two daughters, Claudia and Frieda, tried to make a difference in her
life, but the scars were just too deep.</span><span style="font-family:Palatino"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">In the afterword to a 1994 edition of the novel,
Morrison said,<span style> </span>“The book, doesn't
effectively handle the silence at its center: the void that is Pecola's
'unbeing.'”<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Lydia Diamond, who adapted the novel into a play
format, has helped flesh out some of the void by adding monologues for Pecola
that make it clear how desperate she is for a warm and kind touch, a voice of
encouragement. To a degree, this makes Pecola’s final flight into insanity much
clearer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Karamu’s production, under the understanding
direction of Fred Sternfeld, basically gets all it can out of the script.<span style> </span>While the play is filled with
compassion, because it is mainly a spoken book, and not a play with visual
elements of physical action and conflict, it’s difficult to get immersed.<span style> </span>The silence Morrison talked about is
still present.<span style> </span>We are observers,
not participants.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The cast is generally fine.<span style> </span>Andrea Belser is compelling as
Pecola.<span style> </span>She rings all the right
notes out of a scene in which she is unknowingly cajoled into poisoning a
dog,<span style> </span>a dog, much like her, who is
the victim of fate.<span style> </span>Corlesia Smith
gives a textured performance as Frieda.<span style>
</span>Stephanie Stovall is properly obnoxious as the heartless mother.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino">CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: THE BLUEST EYE is a good
selection as a Black History month presentation by Karamu.<span style> </span>It is the work of one of the country’s
finest African American women writers and a local celebrity.<span style> </span>It gets a credible production.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"><span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">THE BLUEST EYE continues
through February 26 at Karamu, 2355 East 89th Street, which has a fenced,
guarded and lighted parking lot adjacent to the theatre, and provides free
parking.<span style> </span>For ticket information
call 216-795-7077.</span></p>