The Bluest Eye
Adapted by Lydia R. Diamond from the novel by Toni Morrison.
Product Code: BC4000
Full-length Play
Drama
Cast size: 2 to 3m., 6 to 10w.
Awards: AATE Distinguished Play Award
Rights and availability
This title can be licensed and sold in the following countries:
Canada, United States
* Please note the royalty rate listed is the minimum royalty rate per performance. The actual royalty rate will be determined upon completion of a royalty application.
Synopsis
Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye is a story about the tragic life of a young black girl in 1940s Ohio. Eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove wants nothing more than to be loved by her family and schoolmates. Instead, she faces constant ridicule and abuse. She blames her dark skin and prays for blue eyes, sure that love will follow. With rich language and bold vision, this powerful adaptation of an American classic explores the crippling toll that a legacy of racism has taken on a community, a family and an innocent girl.
Details
- Status In stock
- Type of Show Full-length Play
- Product Code BC4000
- Minimum Cast Size 8
- Pages of Dialogue 72
- Min. Royalty Rate $110.00/perf
- Approx. Run Time 90 min
- Staging Flexible staging.
Categories
- Target Audience College and Adult
- Performing Group College Theatre | Community Theatre | Professional Theatre
- Genre Drama
- ISBN(13) 9781583425381
Media Reviews
"A must-see production … an altogether superb (and harrowing) world premiere stage adaptation." -Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times"Diamond's sharp, wrenching, deeply humane adaptation … helps us discover how an innocent like Pecola can be undone so thoroughly by a racist world that, if it sees her at all, does so only long enough to kick the pins out from under her." -Chicago Reader
"A spare and haunting play … The playwright displays a delicate touch that seems right for the theme spiraling through the piece: that of the invidious influence of a white-majority nation not yet mature enough to validate beauty in all its forms." -The Washington Post
"Diamond even addresses the lack that Morrison herself found in the novel. In the afterword to a 1994 edition, she says the book doesn't effectively handle the silence at its center: the void that is Pecola's 'unbeing.' Making up for that silence, Diamond creates new monologues for the child that make clear just how desperate she is for a warm and kind touch … At the same time Diamond, like Morrison, largely avoids cheap sentimentality and keeps intact the novel's rich humor, much of it rooted in children's attempts to decipher adults' confusing coded language." -Chicago Reader
"Poignant, provocative." -Backstage
"This is a powerful coming-of-age story that should be seen by all young girls." -Chicagocritic.com
"This is bittersweet, moving drama that preserves the vigor and the disquiet of Ms. Morrison’s novel … for theatergoers of any age, it is not to be missed." -The New York Sun
"[Toni Morrison's] complex narrative is faithfully translated to the stage … rich language … supple eloquence." -The New York Times
Gallery
The Bluest Eye - Freedom Repertory Theatre, Philadelphia, PA
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