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It’s mere coincidence that Common Ground Theatre’s long-planned production of “Day of Absence” opened for streaming on Friday, just six days after the death of its venerated 90-year-old playwright Douglas Turner Ward.
But the passing of Ward who cofounded and for many years ran the Negro Ensemble Company in New York reminds the viewer of how innovative a writer he was, and how this boundary-breaking 1965 play is still, unfortunately, relevant today. The filmed play, directed by Common Ground artistic director Yolanda Franklin, was presented for just three Zoom-based performances last weekend.
“Day of Absence” is a satire described as a reverse minstrel show. Black actors wearing whiteface makeup portray the White citizens of a small Southern town in the mid-1950s, where all of the city’s Black residents mysteriously disappear for one day. The White residents become increasingly desperate, despondent and angry as they realize how dependent they are on the Bl