Wedding Band was one of the plays at the Tom Patterson Theatre at the Stratford Festival in 2023. In the morning I had attended another even at the theatre so was able to pick up a last minute ticket for the matinee.
The play was new to me and very well done. It is about an inter-racial relationship between a black seamstress and a white baker in South Carolina, United States. Their ten year relationship is illegal. Their plan to relocate to New York where they can actually get married is foiled when he gets the flu – brought home by soldiers returning from France after WWI. His sister and mother show up to help nurse him and tension builds up between them and his intended.
It is a story about love, race, and intolerance on many levels. His mother is German and changed her name to assimilate in the US but still suffered prejudice. However, it doesn’t stop her from being dead set against her future daughter-in-law solely because she is black.
A very thought-provoking play written by Alice Childress in the 1960s is still relevant today where each state has different laws and tolerance of human beings living their lives freely.
