Ragtime production in black face!! so horrified!!!

wow! how the hell did they get away with this?!?!

Yikes!

This theater is in Ireland.

It's definitely not normal (and Australia is not entirely the same as Ireland) but it's not perceived the same way overseas it is here.

Also, the blackface performance you refer to was performed on Hey Hey It's Saturday, and was a reunion performance by some guys who had done the same thing ~20 years earlier.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/connick-jr-offended-by-hey-hey-its-saturday-blackface-skit-20091008-gng3.html

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Updated On: 1/28/10 at 01:13 AM

This is just too hard to watch. For shame!

I find it an improvement.

THE PEOPLE CALL IT RAGTIME!

Eddie Murphy does the opposite all the time!

It does have much stronger connotations in the U.S.A than elsewhere because of your history.You couldn't do RAGTIME in Ireland (or Australia) because neither country has the black population to cast it from. (A few years ago when SHOWBOAT was done here in Australia they had to bring in black cast members and they are going to have to do the same thing for HAIRSPRAY shortly). I wouldn't find it offensive (and I doubt the Irish in that audience did ) I do however think it looks ridiculous...still if they want to do that show...

It looks ridiculous, yes. And I suppose I find it a little uncomfortable based on conditioning.

But, honestly, how is this different than dressing up to be white or Asian? Something that most comedians do in movies here in the USA. . .

Updated On: 1/28/10 at 08:35 AM

So are we (the United States) also past the point where white Shakespearian actors can play Othello or MacBeth? Because I don't see the difference.

This is not a Minstrel Show here, but it is white actors in black makeup. So is what I mentioned above.

The issue seems to be the tradition of it, not the act itself. But based on United States history, this is perceived as unacceptable.

Nothing these performers are doing on stage indicates a parody or derogatory mocking of the black characters in "Ragtime." They are performing it with serious intentions. Yet the act of putting on the black makeup in and of itself is what people are finding offensive.

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I will add that it personally creeps me out to see this. But that is because of my own experiences growing up in America. I've seen our country's struggles firsthand, beginning in the 1960s. So this clip makes me uncomfortable.

But if I remove my emotional baggage from it, there's really nothing wrong with what they are doing. They are actors, putting on makeup to play characters and tell a story. It's no different than a 40-year-old actress being made up to be 80. Is that ageist? Should we ban middle-aged women from ever playing Peter Pan again? Or Hansel (in the opera Hansel and Gretel)? Is that sexist? No more "trouser" roles?

If their intentions were to be insulting or to parody the race, then there would be a serious problem with what they are doing.

As i see it now, I am the one with the problem. I don't like what I see. But that has to do with my history and feelings about the subject, not in how they are presenting it here on stage.

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It's called "Color Blind Casting", guys. GEEZ.