WHITE AFRICAN MASK: IN SEARCH OF THE MISSING LINK
That’s a fair question, but Bonnett doesn’t attempt to answer it. Instead she starts off by taking us on a tour through what she calls the “Library Museum of Human Conditioning” to show us unconvincing “exhibits” intended to shed light on human cruelty: a drunk in the gutter, a greedy businessman, an unjustly imprisoned African American. She presents social issues we pondered in high school as if we’d never been exposed to them before. But White African Mask is not only intellectually insulting, it’s dull. Why put a library tour, probably the most undramatic situation imaginable, onstage?
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On to Part III, the “Historical Section,” which contains the exhibits “Black Man’s Past” and “White Woman’s Memory.” It’s almost painful in its insipidity. A WASP woman (Bonnett) tells the story of how she came to be friends with a black man (Robert Teverbough). “He sat on my couch sipping white wine,” she says with an air of wonder. “A soon-to-be actor who acted white.” As if a black man couldn’t sit on a white woman’s couch and sip white wine. What’s he supposed to do, steal the glass?
