Blood Knot | David’s Story
Actor David Adams, who plays Morrie in Blood Knot, is the person who championed the play to our artistic team. He was kind enough to share some of his personal connection to the play and to South Africa with us.
Young David and his family.
I was born in South Africa in 1955, under the Apartheid regime. According to this government, I was classified as “Coloured.” This classification meant something different under Apartheid than it did in the United States. In South Africa “Cape Coloureds,” as they were called, were a very diverse ethnic group. Their ancestry might include European colonizers, like the British and Dutch, indigenous peoples like the Bantu and Xhosa, slaves imported from places like India & the Malay Archipelago, or, most often, all three. This assortment of mixed race peoples, were classified as a single group under the Apartheid regime.
This regime restricted all activity – where you could live, where and what you could do for work, where you could go to school – and all the choices for Coloureds were second rate! The Coloured people were a reminder of the “mixing of races” – forbidden under the “Immorality Act.” This single group (Klerlinge) was comprised of a wide variety of shades of Brown (Bruinmense), but there were also people who, by genetic accident, could pass as White (European) and enjoy the many benefits of that classification. Many of those people had to forsake their families to maintain the charade and feared having families of their own, in case the child’s colouring revealed their true heritage. Within the Coloured community, children born with fairer skin, or more European characteristics, were favoured – consciously or unconsciously. It is under the shadow of this system that we experience the relationship of these two Coloured stepbrothers.
Born into the Apartheid system, I’ve always been fascinated by how this classification and culture of being second class has affected my own psyche. Is there an intrinsic insecurity? What about the fears of tasting white privilege, some of the time? The fear of being discovered a fraud? Even though I’ve been away from South Africa for 50 years and the abhorrent system of Apartheid was dismantled 25 years ago – what affect did being born into this racist system have on me? As an actor, I have spent my entire career trading heavily on the colour of my skin and playing different ethnicities. Does it make me feel more or less defined by that color? What is the essence of being ‘Coloured’ or ‘White’?
David Adams
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