Rezitativ (Recitatif)

Only recently rediscovered, «Recitatif» is a literary sensation: the only short story by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Toni Morrison. In it, two young women meet: Roberta and Twyla, both from poor backgrounds, meet in an orphanage and become friends. They are repeatedly brought together by chance, and we learn about their men, their jobs and their children in a series of snapshots. In the end they stand on opposite sides of a protest against racial segregation. But the author leaves open which of the two is white and which is Black.

«Recitatif» is «an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial» as Morrison herself writes. She gives both characters unadorned language but provides a wealth of detail: about the mothers of both characters – one dances, the other is sick; their favourite foods – one likes Salisbury steak and Jell-O, the other doesn’t; the music they listen to – one likes Jimi Hendrix; and the neighbourhoods they live in. What conclusions can be drawn on the basis of these points of reference? «Life is complex, conceptually dominated by binaries but never wholly contained by them», the writer Zadie Smith notes about «Recitatif».

The director Miriam Ibrahim makes this experiment the starting point of her stage adaptation, using a range of theatrical means to challenge our perceptions: How does our assessment of a person or a situation change according to the colour of their skin? «Recitatif» repeatedly invites us to see things from new angles and to put our own views to the test in every scene.