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#ReadingForParity, Female empowerment, Female Playwrights, Gender Parity, Tanya Barfield, The Call
After the tragic shooting in South Carolina, I was nervous to read and write about The Call (the play I’d previously selected for this week’s #ReadingForParity) for this project. There are so many problems with how America handles (or atrociously attempts to deny) issues of race. But I decided that it was important to read a play that dealt with race this week. I know that it’s not enough it could never be enough but I do feel that unless this country begins listening with empathy and understanding, we will never have equality.
This post is dedicated to Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, DePayne Doctor, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Simmons Sr. and Myra Thompson.
The Call is about a white couple who want to adopt an African baby. Their initial expectations about the adoption and its ramifications are challenged both by their friends (the recently married Rebecca and Drea, both African American, and their new African neighbor Alemu) and by the reality of the situation.
In this play, the characters are all trying to do the right thing but don’t necessarily know how to go about it in the right way. Peter volunteered in Africa when he was younger, along with Rebecca’s brother. Annie has done copious amounts of research on the poverty and orphans there. When Annie and Peter initially decide to adopt a baby from Africa, they tell Rebecca and Drea that they are open to adopting a child who up to is eighteen months old, provided it’s a girl. Rebecca is the first to bring up the fact that, at eighteen months old, such children have already been traumatized by their abject circumstances and they are likely to act out. Peter is in denial, remarking that, “Eighteen months old is still a baby”. However, when the adoption agency sends over a picture of the child, she appears to be four years old, not two and a half as the agency had said nor eighteen months as Annie and Peter had requested. Rebecca seems adamant that they should not adopt this baby. Annie starts to wonder. Peter insists that this girl is their daughter and is right for them, regardless of age. But it’s hard to know whether he is being heroic or naïve.
Many of the scenes address racial identity in a deceptively lighthearted way. There is fun conversation about what it’s like to take care of black hair; Rebecca describes Drea’s hair as “a sculpture” and offers to do Annie’s daughter’s hair for her. Annie concedes that she herself may be “wonder-bread white” but that she will learn how to take care of her daughter. The two couples also discuss baby names, with Annie initially wanting the name “Emma” because it was her grandmother’s. They all seem to agree that Annika is a good name; as Peter puts it, “there’re African-Americans with that name. And Scandinavians. So it works in both.” But when Drea reminds everyone that the child will already come with a name, Peter expresses worry that kids will tease a girl with a name that is too African.
These exchanges symbolize something much deeper than names and hair. They hint at the vast gulf that can exist between the experiences of two different races, even among friends. When alone with her wife, Drea tells Rebecca how “white people can’t deal with adopting black babies from here because of slavery…it’s a fait accompli.” Later on in the play, Alemu talks with Annie and comes to the conclusion “you want a child from Africa but you do not want Africa.”
The different backgrounds (race, gender, sexuality, etc) of each character in the play influence how each perceives the decision to adopt a four year old from Africa but Tanya Barfield does not point fingers at her characters. Perhaps that’s because even when everyone is trying to do the right thing, there is no easy solution.
Given the current political and cultural situation in our country, it is important to read plays like The Call, featuring characters of diverse races, ethnicities, sexualities and genders all adding their perspectives to the theatrical discourse.
Click here to read #ReadingForParity Week 2: Creature by Heidi Schreck