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• Photo by Shawn Wagner
• Steph Thomas and Heather Petersteiner in The White Card at Redwood Curtain Theatre.

The White Card which hit the stage on July 26 and runs until Aug. 11, is composed of two acts without intermission. The play transitions from the tennis match to the home of an influential Manhattan couple — Virginia, played by Heather Petersteiner and Charles, portrayed by Gary Sommers — who are throwing a dinner party. First in the room is Eric (Michael Murdock), a family friend and fellow Manhattan elite who wants to connect with up-and-coming Black artist Charlotte, played by RCT newcomer Steph Thomas, in hopes of buying new art for his white walls. Lastly, there’s the couple’s radicalized activist son Alex, played by William English III.

As the dinner party progresses, so do conversations about Black art and representations of race. Ultimately, it’s when Charlotte realizes the true intentions for the dinner party that the audience starts to feel the gravity of the situation and what — and who — is on display. Within these conversations and exchanges between characters, the audience is exposed to the couple’s monolithic ideologies around Black art, such as Charles specific obsession with art centered around Black death and how it pertains to his perception of the Black experience. Or the self-alienation of whiteness from Black suffering within modern society, like when Virginia dismisses trying to understand Black issues, because she’s “not Black,” and “all lives matter.” It’s in exploring these nuances of toxic allyship and other heavy topics found within the historical Black/white social dilemma that makes the play stand out.

While the run time doesn’t feel like enough to completely tackle these topics, between each actor’s character portrayal and the solid writing of Claudia Rankine, they are addressed well. How these issues are approached can vary from the symbolic, like the elitest couple living in a stark all-white space representing the everyday bubble of their whiteness, or expressed outright through the acting, like Charlotte’s reaction to Alex’s insufferable reminders about Black issues happening within the Black community. As a Black man existing in Humboldt, the play offers a level of relatability that I didn’t know I needed.

The play is less about Black victimization and more of what director Dionna Ndlovu calls “white work,” meaning confronting racism and the willingness to stay in the room when it becomes painful, to bear the pressure, to listen and respond. Understanding the ire The White Card could draw in delving into issues of race, the real work happens after the show with Sarah Peters Gonzales and the Whiteness Accountability Space. They hold conversations with white audience members who want to discuss their experience of the play and anti-Blackness in Humboldt, in hopes that these sessions will lead to transformative opportunities for everyone.

While the two showings I went to had some accidents and kinks to work out, like actors knocking over a tray of champagne glasses or misplacement of set pieces, the evident improv experience of those same actors managed to make those minor gaffes feel authentic. 

Though The White Card isn’t the end-all-be-all answer for the issues it addresses, it’s at least addressing them. It feels new, not in the way it brings these problems to light, but in getting to the bigger picture and creating conversations for unity and outlining the work that needs to be done to get there.

Performances of the Redwood Curtain Theater production of The White Card are Aug. 2, 3, 9 and 10 at 8 p.m., and Aug. 4 and 11 at 2 p.m. For tickets and information visit ncrt.net.

Kelby Mcintosh (he/him) is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Redwoods Listening Post (RLP). The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Kelby's reporting comes courtesy of a partnership between RLP, North Coast Journal Inc., and Access Humboldt. For more on the California Local News Fellowship, visit fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.