Bushnell Play Review

The one woman show, Warriors Don't Cry, we saw at the Bushnell on November 16 was a reenactment of a memoir written about a 16-year-old African-American girl named Melba going to an "all white" high school along with 8 other teens in 1957, when racism was alive in Arkansas as well as most of the South at this time. During her time at the high school, she was taunted by her classmates, threatened, called horrendous names and had acid sprayed in her eyes. All of this was taking place while a bodyguard was watching over her. One of the things that really bothered me was the fact that the bodyguard would never help her unless her life was at risk; which was technically all the time. The only time she actually received any physical help she received from him, not verbal suggestions, was when the acid was sprayed in her eyes and he took her to the hospital. I was totally not expecting Link, the white boy who becomes friends with Melba, to act the way he did. At the beginning of the play when Melba first went to the school, I was shocked to see how the students reacted to her and the other African-American kids being there. I was extremely appalled when I realized that people actually used to harm African-Americans like the way she portrayed and described. I got used to the torment she described throughout the play that I was shocked to see Link actually show any sort of affection for Melba, let alone let her in his car! I think that the way I reacted just shows how much times have changed in the past 50 years and how much the world will change in the next 50. I thought that the play was very informative and made me appreciate more not only the world that we live in today but also the history that has been recorded in ways such as this so that we can learn from our mistakes and make sure history doesn't repeat itself in ways such as this.