Dites-moi Pourquoi?
This is from The New York Times rave review of the South Pacific revival (following last week's rave for Gypsy--should be a good fight at the Tonys):
Notice, by the way, how Mr. Sher implicitly underscores the theme of racism by quietly having the few African-American sailors in the company keep apart from the others. And the production never strains to evoke parallels between the then and now of the United States at war in an alien land.
Having blacks and whites keep apart in the background sounds like one of those ideas that tries to make a point and just ends up being distracting. (It is true that the forces were segregated in WWII--but wouldn't that just mean there wouldn't be any blacks around?)
I'm not sure what the second sentence means. Does the production not strain to evoke parallels to the U.S. at war today because 1) it evokes those parallels so easily or 2) it doesn't try to evoke them because the people behind the show realize it wouldn't work?
posted by LAGuy @ 1:06 AM
2 Comments:
On my father's WWII Destroyer Escort, blacks were on the ship but segregated to sleep on a particular deck -- and I also believe, were limited to support jobs.
Thanks for the information. This is one of the great things about the internet--you find out stuff and hear stories that you'd never know about otherwise.
Post a Comment
<< Home