Point of View

Narrative point of view shifts several times over the course of the play. In what is identified as Act One, the perspective is essentially that of most plays, with black characters playing out the events and subtext of a story in front of an audience in the theatre where the performance is being presented. In what is identified as Act Two, another layer is added to the perspective, as a group of non-black characters watch Act One’s action played out by the same characters; the audience is now watching both sets of characters as the action goes beyond the point at which Act One ended and into new plot. In what is identified as Act Three, new action that picks up from the point that ended Act Two, with the non-black characters now playing characters associated with the black characters of Act One.

This...