'Wine in the Wilderness' review — rarely revived drama is an artistic masterpiece
9 / 10
Bill, the Harlem artist at the center of the play, envisions his latest work hanging in one of those ordinary places someday. A triptych of Black womanhood also titled Wine in the Wilderness, it features a painting of a young girl, a painting yet to be created, and a central portrait of Bill's ideal Black woman: a sunlit African queen with natural hair and a striking red wrap. She, Bill says, will show the "messed-up women" in his Harlem neighborhood — where the race riots of 1964 are happening concurrently with the events of the play — what they should aspire to be.
