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Back The Darker Face of the Earth Save as PDF
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
HECTOR (In a vision from his childhood in Africa.)

Fire! Fire!

The huts . . . the boats . . .

blood in the water.

Run, children, run!

AUGUSTUS gains control and kneels over HECTOR, choking him; HECTOR gasps and is finally still. When AUGUSTUS realizes HECTOR is dead, he collapses on the lifeless body.

AUGUSTUS Damn you, old man! I came to save you.

After a moment, he collects himself and stands up, his voice breaking, more pitiful than angry.

Who is not with us, is against us.
HENRY Selah.

The SLAVES begin humming as AUGUSTUS kneels and wraps the body in vines, then rolls it under a clump of moss and exposed roots.

AUGUSTUS

Let these vines be your shroud,

this moss a pillow for your head.

These roots will be your coffin,

this dark water your grave.
SLAVES Selah.
AUGUSTUS Sleep, Hector. Sleep and be free.

The SLAVES look at SCYLLA, who lifts her hand slowly.

SCYLLA Eshu Elewa ogo gbogbo.

Blackout.

Scene 5

SCENE 5

Lights rise on the NARRATOR.

NARRATOR

Sweet whispers can leave a bitter taste

when a body’s supposed to be freedom bound.

Every day as the sun comes easing down,

our man climbs the stairs to sherry and lace.

Lights rise on the big house, LOUIS’s study and the parlor. Early evening; LOUIS sits hunched over his charts. He is excited.

LOUIS

Nothing in the books.

Empty sky in all the charts.

And yet I’ve seen it, with my own eyes!

Last night it was the brightest.

Draws a few lines with his compass, looks up wistfully.

What once was a void

fills with feverish matter.

LOUIS continues to fiddle with his papers throughout the scene, occasionally jumping up to peer through the telescope.

AMALIA stands by the fireplace, reading aloud from a book.

AMALIA

The princess said to her father, “Bring me

strawberries, I am hungry for strawberries.”

She shuts the book.
He came back with a husband instead.

Kneels before the fireplace, trying to start it.