Who Are You? Who Who?

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• Lisa Marie Rollins
• W. Kamau Bell

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In the not so distant past, it was a common idea among social workers that no one would want to adopt a black child. Black newborns were imagined to be especially undesirable. From this heartbreaking world comes Lisa Marie Rollins, with a one-woman show, Ungrateful Daughter, directed by W. Kamau Bell. The complexity of life as a transracial adoptee is rich with comedic possibilities through eyes and ears as sharp as Rollins’ — but let’s not lie. These are the kind of jokes that can cause you to wobble even as you laugh (see above). Rollins lightheartedly demonstrates the fury that is every adoptee’s birthright, as well as her genuine love for her adoptive parents, white, Christian, and Republican though they may be. It is other, far more annoying white parents who come in for hilarious criticism here — you know the ones. Even if you wish you’d never seen the famous white parents of Malawians, Cambodians, and Ethiopians, you probably have. “Patronizing” doesn’t even cover the behavior of some of these celebs, and Rollins pinpoints the how and why.
June 4-12, 8 p.m., 2010