Toni Morrison’s debut novel, The Bluest Eye, examines what happens when a young girl internalizes the external forces of racism.
It tells the tale of 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove. The young black girl, who comes of age in Jim Crow America, attributes the alienation, abuse and ridicule that she experiences to her dark skin. She believes that if she had blue eyes, it would change how people saw her and treated her — it would change her life.
Now this story is taking center stage by way of playwright Lydia Diamond’s theatrical adaptation, in performance at the Huntington Theatre Company's Calderwood Pavillion.
Reluctant to have her works adapted, Morrison made an exception for Diamond. In conversation with Open Studio’s Jared Bowen, Diamond said the privilege and responsibility of adapting The Bluest Eye weighed on her.
“The heft of needing to get it right ultimately helped me," she said. "I had to settle into the work and say to myself ‘OK, I've read this book a thousand times now. I know this language. I know this story. It’s time to release it into the world. I think that's what will honor Toni most. That's what I tried to do’”
Diamond said the word “ugly,” which recurs throughout the book, represents more than Pecola’s distorted self-image.
“You know, there's the ugliness of the world that assaults Pecola in so many ways, a world that is dysfunctional," Diamond explained. "She is a poor girl who is not only considered ugly because of the color of her skin, but ugly because of her poverty. You do hear 'ugly' over and over again."
The Bluest Eye is set in the 1940’s. It was published in 1970. Now, in 2022, Diamond wrestles with the fact that this exploration of race and class remains as relevant as when it was published. She said it is both beautiful and heartbreaking that modern audiences can find themselves in this story.
“I am always shocked and a little bit sad that my work that lives around the intersections of race and class — every production I've ever had for 20 years — the review begins with, ‘This could not be a more timely moment for this play,' and that saddens me," she said.
Diamond also lamented the backlash that Morrison’s work is experiencing today.
“I got a letter yesterday from a woman whose town is not letting The Bluest Eye be taught in its schools. I got that letter just last night," she said.
The Huntington Theatre Company's production of The Bluest Eye is on stage at the Calderwood Pavilion through March 26.
