Front Cover

MORE PRAISE FOR THE DARKER FACE OF THE EARTH

A major American play . . . With skill that approaches a celestial gift, Dove blends form, subject and content.

—The Mail Tribune

[Dove’s] first venture into playwriting has produced an enormously powerful and beautiful work. The themes are intricate, the main characters full-bodied and the language—oh, the language—nothing short of stunning.

—CurtainUp

Playwright Dove merges folklore, voodoo ritual and biblical analogy with biting social commentary. The action is suspenseful, the dialogue picturesque.

—Variety

The Darker Face of the Earth marks a considerable achievement . . . This powerful exploration of sexual and racial tensions is assembled in an imaginative realm, with few technical requirements.

—Harvard Review

Lushly written, ingeniously plotted, drenched in antebellum atmosphere, The Darker Face of the Earth has lots of soul.

—The Guardian (England)

Sophocles and slavery come together with bitter poignancy . . . By connecting the issue of slavery to one of the most fundamental Greek tragedies, The Darker Face of the Earth draws its own inescapable conclusion about the impact of an immoral institution.

—The Baltimore Sun

Black theatre takes a big step forward.

—The Stage

A strong and ambitious piece of work . . . [Dove] does one of the hardest things to do onstage, something maybe only a poet could—she creates in Augustus a living metaphor . . . [He] is not only Oedipus here, but Hamlet and Moses, and all the Greek heroes unlucky enough to be half-mortal and half-God . . . Throughout the play, the transference of the legend from ancient Greece to the antebellum South works surprisingly well . . . [Dove’s] scenes are shaped with ease and grace; her dialogue, even when poetic, is expressive; and she has a vivid sense of character.

—The Washington Post

. . . the play’s selectivity of incident, judicious sparseness, clean lines, even dignified tone and simple staging keep it operating successfully as a modernization of the classic Greek tragic mode.

—The Women’s Review of Books

. . . [this] play begs to be staged. One can dream a little and wish that it could be produced in every city, every school in the country.

—The Times (Trenton, NJ)

[Rita Dove’s] riveting and accomplished play . . . should have a permanent place in the repertoire of the American theater.

—The Star-Ledger

Half-Title Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

The Darker Face of the Earth

Copyright © 1994, 1996, 2000, 2022 by Rita Dove

Fourth Edition layout by Daniela Connor

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner.

e-ISBN 978-1-58654-051-7

ISBN 978-1-58654-119-4 (tradepaper)

978-1-58654-120-0 (casebound)

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.

Fourth Edition

Published by Story Line Press

an imprint of Red Hen Press

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:

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.

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

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

She giggles and points to HECTOR.

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.

Everyone freezes.

With a significant look to the window.

Lights up on AMALIA’s bedroom. AMALIA JENNINGS LAFARGE lies in a canopy bed, a thickly swaddled babe in her arms. She is an attractive white woman, close to 20 years old, who exhibits more intelligence and backbone than is generally credited to a Southern belle. The DOCTOR, an older whiskered gentleman, is pacing the floor. AMALIA, though exhausted, appears amused.

AMALIA begins humming a lullaby to the baby.

Baby raises a cry; AMALIA continues to hum while the DOCTOR keeps pacing. Among the SLAVES, SCYLLA stands up, clutching her stomach.

The SLAVES look at her in fear.

The SLAVES gather around SCYLLA as she tries to straighten up but cannot. HECTOR’s gaze is still fixed on the window. AMALIA’s husband rushes into the bedroom. LOUIS LAFARGE is a handsome man in his twenties. The DOCTOR holds him back.

Tears himself free and rushes over to the bed.

LOUIS lunges at AMALIA; the DOCTOR restrains him.

To LOUIS, who is being forced into an armchair by the DOCTOR.

Depleted from the bravado she has mustered, AMALIA bends over the baby so they won’t see her exhaustion. LOUIS, still sitting in the armchair, grabs the DOCTOR by the shirt and pulls him down to his level.

Pulling LOUIS aside.

He shoves the reluctant LOUIS out of the door, then moves quickly to the window to peek out on the slaves below. Among the SLAVES, excitement reigns as SCYLLA hobbles over to HECTOR, whose eyes are still fixed on the bedroom window.

The SLAVES look up to the window and freeze. The DOCTOR returns to AMALIA, who is singing to the baby.

Lights up on LOUIS, sitting on the bed in his room, head in hands.

Takes a swig from a flask in his jacket.

Paces, agitated; then stops, an idea dawning.

He rummages in drawers; lights up on AMALIA’s room.

Softly, remembering.

In wonder.

Shaking off the spell of the memory.

Lights up on LOUIS in his bedroom as he emerges from the back of the wardrobe with a pair of spurs, still trailing red ribbons.

LOUIS chuckles as he pockets the spurs and leaves the room. Lights up on the SLAVES. HECTOR stretches his hand toward the window and speaks, as if trying to remember.

Lights up on AMALIA and the DOCTOR.

AMALIA buries her face in the pillow and begins to weep.

AMALIA clutches the baby to her.

Silence. AMALIA stares at the baby.

The baby makes a noise; she lays him on her breast.

HECTOR falls to his knees and cries out; SCYLLA tries to restrain him.

Lights up on AMALIA’s bedroom; there’s a knock at the door.

AMALIA stares at the DOCTOR with disgust. The DOCTOR opens the door.

LOUIS enters, glaring.

Warming up to his role as the arbiter of responsibility and morality; pacing self-importantly.

Both LOUIS and AMALIA are silent.

Pauses for effect.

To AMALIA.

Pointing to the sideboard where AMALIA keeps an oblong wicker sewing basket, trimmed with red velvet rosettes and lined in blue silk.

LOUIS places the basket next to the bed.

She says this with difficulty. The DOCTOR and LOUIS exit as AMALIA carefully unwraps the baby and inspects him, top to toe. Lights up on the DOCTOR and LOUIS in the hall; TICEY, a house slave in her forties, approaches them.

Shaking his head.

TICEY exits. During the following scene she approaches PSYCHE, takes her aside, whispering. At PSYCHE’s shocked reaction, the SLAVES, except for HECTOR and SCYLLA, crowd around. TICEY retreats back into the house while the other SLAVES lower their heads, softly humming in a frozen tableau. HECTOR falls to his knees; SCYLLA stands over him, severely bent.

In the bedroom, AMALIA embraces the baby one last time.

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