THE STORY: Chuck and Mary Robinson, anxious to promote the cause of integration, have decided to sell their house to blacks. The house is quite expensive and the neighborhood exclusive, but Chuck and Mary (who are moving to a smaller house nearby) are resolved to face whatever problems may result and to stand firm for their principles. When their buyers, an affluent black couple, arrive, all goes with surprising ease—at first—and a check is accepted as down payment. But then, gradually but inexorably, the unspoken tensions emerge—the black couple stripping away at the facade of self-conscious affability which their hosts have assumed, and flaunting the essential “blackness” which they have no intention of modifying. In the explosive climax of the play all pretense vanishes—on both sides—having a wreckage of good intentions from which only remorse can arise.
A dynamic and gripping drama in which the decision of a white couple to sell their house to a black couple brings on a surprise and emotionally charged confrontation.
