Yellowman at Milwaukee Repertory Theater

Authors

• Dael Orlandersmith

A Pulitzer finalist, Yellowman is a powerful and fascinating drama about racial prejudice within the African-American Gullah/Geechee culture in the Sea Islands off South Carolina. A memory play about Alma, a large dark-skinned beauty, who dreams of life beyond the confines of her poverty-stricken and deprived small-town Southern upbringing, and Eugene, the light-skinned man whose fate is tragically intertwined with hers, the play explores the negative associations surrounding male blackness as well as the effect these racial stereotypes have on black women. Alma and Eugene are childhood playmates who gradually fall in love, despite the prejudices of their parents and community. Ms. Orlandersmith interweaves poetic monologues with street-smart dialogue to create a coat of many colors for her star-crossed lovers. She also shows us the ugliness of alcoholism. The deadliest heritage of internal racism is the way parents vent their own pain on their children and it's the playwright's use of this element that gives the play its unforgettable aura of haunting devastation. Both a celebration of young love and a harrowing study of smoldering domestic violence, the play is both heartwarming and ultimately heartbreaking.
Directed by Danette Scott Perry.