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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
PHEBE B. W. Gonzalez
PSYCHE Gina Daniels
SCYLLA Tamu Gray
TICEY Michelle Blackmon
DIANA Nadine Griffith
SLAVE WOMAN/NARRATOR Johanna Jackson
HECTOR Thomas Byrd
ALEXANDER J. P. Phillips
SCIPIO Davon Russell
AUGUSTUS Ezra Knight
AMALIA Elizabeth Norment
LOUIS Mark Murphey
DOCTOR Dennis Robertson
JONES Paul Vincent O’Connor
LEADER Tyrone Wilson
BENJAMIN August Gabriel
HENRY Kevin Kenerly
SLAVES/CONSPIRATORS The ensemble
DRUMMERS Russ Appleyard/Craig Goodmond

Time

Prologue: about 1820.

Acts I and II: twenty years later.

Place

The action takes place in antebellum South Carolina, on the Jennings Plantation and in its environs.

The characters of PSYCHE and DIANA, as well as the DOCTOR and JONES, can be played by the same actors, as long as it is made clear to the audience that they are different people.

On occasion, the slaves comment upon the play somewhat in the manner of a Greek chorus. Individual characters are bound by time and circumstance; the chorus of slaves is more detached and omnipresent. By moving and speaking in a ritualized manner, they provide vocal and percussive counterpoint to the action. The slave woman, who occasionally steps forward as the narrator, is quietly present in all slave scenes.

Prologue

PROLOGUE

Lights rise on the big house, revealing the porch, AMALIA’s bedroom, LOUIS’s study and the hallway.

HECTOR, a slave in his early twenties, is standing on the porch, looking up at a second-story window. PHEBE, a slave girl in her early teens, runs onstage; she is coming from the basement kitchen. Skinny and electric, she is chuckling to herself.

PHEBE

What some people won’t do

for attention! Shore,

he’s alright-looking—

but that ain’t qualification enough

for the big white bed

in the big white house!

Laughs at her own wit; then, skipping in a circle, sings.

Stepped on a pin, the pin bent,

and that’s the way the story went!
PSYCHE (Offstage.)
Phebe! Phebe! You up there?
PHEBE Here I am, Psyche!

PSYCHE enters. She is petite, shy; though not much older than PHEBE, she treats her like a little sister.

PSYCHE

You shouldn’t go running off

by yourself, chile.
PHEBE Look: Hector on the porch.

She giggles and points to HECTOR.

PSYCHE Leave him be, poor soul.
PHEBE Aw, Psyche! Anybody crazy enough to be standing there, thinking he—
PSYCHE Shush now, chile!

PHEBE shrugs, hums and skips again. The other SLAVES straggle in, tired from the day’s work, whispering among themselves, a suppressed excitement in their manner.

PHEBE What took you all so long?

Slower than a pack of lame turtles.
ALEXANDER (A dignified man in his forties.)

We all ain’t quite

so spry as you, gal.
PHEBE Shh!

Everyone freezes.

I thought I heard something.
PSYCHE Aw, girl—
SCYLLA (A tall dark woman in her twenties.)
Must be a hard birthin’.
PSYCHE I sure hope she makes it. Her mama—
SCYLLA Her mama was the weakest excuse for a woman ever dropped on this earth. But this one—