Perception vs. Reality

Over the play’s three acts, the narrative develops an increasingly complex, increasingly layered system of perception and reality. That system begins from a premise and situation common in almost all works of theater: that the characters are the characters, the audience is the audience, and the two are separate. The audience perceives the characters as such, and are exposed to more and more aspects of those characters, their lives and relationships, as the narrative unfolds. In this specific case, and as the play begins, the characters are members of a black family behaving in ways that, according to stage directions, behave in ways and within circumstances familiar to viewers of similar families in similar circumstances in similar plays, movies, and television shows.

As the narrative unfolds, the system of perception and reality developed by the play takes on different layers of both action...