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The play draws no conclusions. It is more about how conversations around race get derailed, and start over, and what misconceptions occur along the way in those conversations. It’s an exploration.

Poet and essayist Claudia Rankine has been examining, in a series of acclaimed books, how racial assumptions shape daily life. She also has extended her investigations beyond books to such public channels as readings and talks — and now, a play.

“I am hoping the play will allow us to start talking,” Rankine says. “What the talk will do . . .” She pauses. “Who knows? Until we start talking about what we believe and why we believe it, we will continue to tiptoe around each other and get nowhere. We have seen what the silence does. We should give talking a chance.”

We chatted with Pittman about everything from her recent work on the upcoming second season of Marvel’s Luke Cage series on Netflix, to what it means to talk race in Boston. 

“In The White Card,” said Jared, “Rankine deals us an engrossing, dispiriting and raw examination of the fault lines between the races. The confrontations onstage are likely to land in our own conscious leaving much to reconcile. It’s not often that theater, as a looking glass, is this crystal clear.”

Claudia Rankine’s play is particularly poignant in the Boston setting. The A.R.T. and ArtsEmerson audiences are primarily white. The house lights are kept on throughout the show because the audience is a crucial part of the performance. The White Card holds a mirror up to its patrons and asks, ‘Is this you?’

Ms. Rankine has given us a challenging, timely, and necessary work that deserves both our undivided attention and praise.

By the end of the play, there is a sense that the characters have been altered by their raw, highly-charged encounters with each other. It doesn’t feel like a resolution, but a greater understanding has been achieved, leaving us with the hope that dialogue may continue.