Product Description

The Darker Face of the Earth, a play by the poet laureate of the United States, creates a human drama of classical proportions. Behind the facade of antebellum Southern plantation life unfolds a mysterious tale of interracial love and strife, guilt and suffering, as both slave and master struggle against a fate that threatens to eclipse them altogether.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1428002 in Books
• Published on: 1994-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 140 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this serio-comic first play, Pulitzer Prize winner and current U.S. poet laureate Dove ( Thomas and Beulah ) takes us into the fascinating world of antebellum South Carolina. In presenting Amalia, a rich white woman who gives birth to a slave's child, she combines elements from Judaism and Christianity, highlighting parallels between the biblical book of Exodus and the flight from slavery to freedom. In the defiant, proud Augustus, the infant placed in a sewing basket and carried off, Dove creates a Moses figure, supposed leader of his people, who fails at the last moment. Amalia's husband isolates himself in his shame, handing over control of the slaves to his wife while he looks to the stars for wisdom (as per the wise men at the birth of Jesus). Tidbits of interesting trivia unfamiliar to many readers abound: we learn that slaves given Sundays off fell into two categories, players and prayers. At times unconvincing (Amalia not only gives birth to the slave child, she insists upon a slave woman as midwife), at times too contrived (Augustus's genealogy hinted at and explained through chance meetings), this is nevertheless a worthwhile contribution to African American culture and literature.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Dove, the U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner, displays skills beyond verse in creating this verse play. She brings to life the black slave experience, moving with tension and complication to a classic denouement. This play is easy to read, and like a good novel it compels the reader to continue to the end. It seems best suited to a classic arena theater; with its fine verse and occasional but effective choral passages, it is a true tragedy, worthy of performance. Indeed, its tragic flaw recalls that of Oedipus . The Darker Face of the Earth should be part of play collections in any library serving a theater department or an urban civic theater. Moreover, it would be a fine addition to black studies and literature collections.
- Jon P. Cobes, Central Wyoming Coll., Riverton
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Poet laureate Dove has done an amazing thing. She has written a classical tragedy, in blank verse, based on the story of Oedipus, but set on a plantation in antebellum South Carolina. The play opens with Amalia, the plantation's white mistress, giving birth to a black baby, much to the horror of her weak and dishonest husband. Refusing to name the father, she agrees to give up her child if his life is spared and allows the newborn to be placed in a sewing basket and carried away. The next scene takes place 20 years later, and Amalia, now in charge of managing the plantation and its slaves, has just acquired a handsome, "bright-skinned" slave with a reputation for rebelliousness named Augustus. Augustus, who believes that his father was a white slave owner who forced himself upon Augustus' black mother, is filled with hate and the desire for revenge, but he can't resist Amalia's advances and the two become lovers. And they do love, not just lust. And, yes, Augustus is Amalia's exiled son. Dove's verse is stark and stirring, and her placement of the tale of Oedipus within the context of slavery and its open secret of miscegenation is brilliant, potent, and repercussive. Donna Seaman

Customer Reviews

The Darker Face of the Earth
Rita Dove's poetry permeates this remarkable new play which uses the Oedipal myth as a structural device as well as a means to enter the world of human slavery as practiced in South Carolina circa 1829-1840. Central to the story is the unusual and compelling relationship between the plantation owner, Amalia Jennings, and her newly acquired revolutionary slave, Augustus Newcastle. Unlike the other slaves who collectively function as the Greek chorus, Augustus can read and write, thus making him not only dangerous but attractive to the high spirited Amalia. Greek mythology aside, THE DARKER FACE OF THE EARTH is a challenging play not only for the reader but for potential producers. But it is well worth the challenge. It is rare that depictions of the conditions of slavery are revealed by 1) an African American, 2) a woman, 3) a poet, and 4) a master storyteller.