America was a different place in 1965. Jim Crow was alive and well in southern cities, American schools were still on the way to being integrated, African-Americans were getting their heads busted in trying to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Alabama, there were race riots in major northern cities, the Andy Griffith Show and The Beverly Hillbillies were the top shows on television and in New York City Day of Absence was being staged by the newly formed Negro Ensemble Company.

Day of Absence, written by Douglas Turner Ward in 1965, is a reverse minstrel where the white residents of a Southern town wake to find all the black people gone. All the roles are played by Black people in white face. The caricatures are broad and cartoonish. It was written to make white audiences squirm while laughing. The script won the Vernon Rice and Obie Awards.

Fifty-five years later, America has changed. And Congo Square Theatre Company has upped the ante. Instead of Black people disappearing, all people of color (known as “Pox” in this iteration) disappear. The script has been updated to include racial slurs and stereotypes of Hispanics, Asians, East Indians, and everyone not white, with uproarious results.

Anthony L. Irons, a master physical comic himself, has directed this multiracial cast with energy and an eye towards razor sharp comic timing. The cast is phenomenal. Jordan Arredondo, Ronald L. Conner, Meagan Dilworth, Ann Douglas, Bryant Hayes, Sonya Madrigal, and Kelvin Roston, Jr. all play multiple parts, easily shifting from one character to another. The bare bones modular set by Sydney Lynne Thomas was the perfect background for the makeup, costumes and wigs by the talented Rueben D. Echoles.

Of note is Douglas’s Mayor Lee, a cross between Boss Hogg of “Dukes of Hazzard” and Marge Schott (the Owner and CEO of the Cincinnati Reds who infamously called her players "million-dollar n*ggers.”) As the events in the play become dire, she makes a television appeal that will have you crying with laughter. Along with her assistant Jackson (Conner), they steal the scenes they are in with a physicality that is unmatched.

When Douglas Turner Ward wrote Day of Absence his intention was to put a mirror to white people and make them feel uncomfortable. Congo Square’s production doesn’t so much indict white people, but makes fun of ignorant stereotypes, and we all hold ignorant stereotypes, whether we’d like to believe it or not. This is America 2020.

Special Note: It was great to see Derrick Sanders back at the helm of Congo Square Theatre Company. His artistic vision is unparalleled.
Day of Absence by Congo Square Theatre continues through March 22 at the Richard Christiansen Theater at Victory Gardens, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets are $35 ($25 for seniors and students) for performances Friday-Sunday.