The White Card: An Attempt to Communicate
photo Gretjen Helene
The White Card, Claudia Rankine’s play on racism is having its world premiere at Boston’s Paramount Theatre as a coproduction with Cambridge’s American Repertory Theatre. Rankine, a celebrated modernist poet, created the drama to bring the ideas of her prize winning Citizen, An American Lyric to a medium where dialogue is most often the means of communication.
As is frequently the case in plays that involve disagreement between characters, a dinner party plays a prominent role in The White Card. At the opening of this two scene piece, Virginia (Patricia Kalember) and Charles (Daniel Gerroll), a wealthy white middle-aged married couple who live in a luxurious New York apartment, are talking with Eric (Jim Poulos), a white art agent as they await Charlotte, an African American artist. Charles and Virginia want to purchase one of Charlotte’s works. …