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Chapters (27)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Half-Title Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Dedication
  7. Cast
  8. Prologue
  9. Act One
  10. Scene 2
  11. Scene 3
  12. Scene 4
  13. Scene 5
  14. Scene 6
  15. Scene 7
  16. Scene 8
  17. Act Two
  18. Scene 2
  19. Scene 3
  20. Scene 4
  21. Scene 5
  22. Scene 6
  23. Scene 7
  24. Scene 8
  25. An Interview with Rita Dove
  26. Biographical Note
  27. Back Cover

The National Endowment for the Arts, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Ahmanson Foundation, the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund, the Max Factor Family Foundation, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Foundation, the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Audrey & Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation, the Kinder Morgan Foundation, the Meta & George Rosenberg Foundation, the Allergan Foundation, the Riordan Foundation, Amazon Literary Partnership, and the Mara W. Breech Foundation partially support Red Hen Press.

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Fourth Edition

Published by Story Line Press

an imprint of Red Hen Press image

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

First and foremost I would like to thank my husband, Fred Viebahn, for his encouragement and help during all the stages of my work on this play—from the moment decades ago in our sun-drenched apartment at Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem, when I first told him my idea, through the years the first draft spent relegated to the bottom of a drawer, to the day Story Line Press offered to publish the manuscript, and finally to the play’s realization on stage. I am indebted to my daughter, Aviva, who—in the clear wisdom of youth—never let her love for the play blind her to the wobbles and bloopers so unerringly detected by her laser eye.

I am also grateful to Robert McDowell of Story Line Press for his vision and enthusiasm and to Cynthia White, former director of play development at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, for her unflagging support, which led directly to the first full stage production in 1996. Of the many people who were involved in earlier renderings I can mention only the principal players: Jennifer Nelson not only brought her inspired direction to a three-week workshop at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1994 (my first behind-the-stage theatre experience), but directed staged readings at the Round House in Silver Spring, Maryland, and at the Roundabout Theatre on Broadway (with Edgar Lansbury as producer); director Ricardo Khan’s and dramaturg Sydné Mahone’s passionate insights propelled a staged reading at Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey; and Derek Walcott directed a superb cast by lending his genius to a very poetic and dramatic reading at the 92nd Street Y in New York City in 1995.

Dedication

This play is for my daughter

Aviva Chantal Tamu Dove-Viebahn.

Cast

CAST

Female slaves:

PHEBE

PSYCHE, in her mid-teens

SCYLLA, pronounced “Skilla”

TICEY, a house slave

DIANA, a young girl about 12 years old

SLAVE WOMAN/NARRATOR

Male slaves:

HECTOR, an African

ALEXANDER

SCIPIO, pronounced “Sippio”

AUGUSTUS NEWCASTLE, a mulatto

The whites:

AMALIA JENNINGS LAFARGE

LOUIS LAFARGE, Amalia’s husband

DOCTOR, in his fifties

JONES, the overseer, in his thirties

The black conspirators:

LEADER

BENJAMIN SKEENE

HENRY BLAKE

Other slaves and conspirators

The Darker Face of the Earth was first performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, USA, on 27 July 1996, under the direction of Ricardo Khan and with the following cast: