“Pink” by Judith Thompson starts with ten-year-old Lucy, who is at her nanny’s funeral in South Africa. The nanny, Nellie, was shot in a march against the apartheid regime. Crying over the woman’s coffin, Lucy expresses her view on apartheid. She believes that the segregation regime is a way to protect the feeling of people like Nellie. She gives the examples of separate toilets, bus stops, and movie theatres and argues that the native Africans would be offended by the comments of the whites if they were together in these circumstances. Furthermore, Lucy has been taught by her mother that native Africans earn less because they do not like or need as much money as white people. Lucy cannot understand why her nanny marched against the apartheid...
A good little monologue, but one that screams the worst tropes of Canadian theatre. Relying on innocence from a controlling perspective. It asks political questions, but doesn't wrestle with them. It's obvious JT is writing for an audience that already agrees with her.