THE STORY:A satire about an imaginary Southern town where
all the Black people have suddenly disappeared. The only ones left are
sick and lying in hospital beds, refusing to get well. Infants are crying
because they are being tended to by strange parents. On a nationwide
radio network the mayor calls on the Black people, wherever they are,
to come back. He shows them the cloths with which they wash cars and
the brushes with which they shine shoes as sentimental reminders of
the goodies that await them. In the end the Black people begin to
reappear, as mysteriously as they had vanished, and the white
community, sobered by what has transpired, breathes a sigh of relief at
the return of the rather uneasy status quo. What will happen next is
left unsaid, but the suggestion is strong that things will never quite be
the same again.
Winner of the Vernon Rice Award. Originally presented with
Happy Ending, this clever and enormously amusing satire is described by the author as “A Reverse Minstrel Show."
Here the all-black cast, made up in white face, recount the uproarious emergencies which occur when a Southern town is faced with the sudden and inexplicable disappearance of all its black citizens.
“Laughter can be as effective as anger in telling white America what [Douglas Turner Ward] has on his mind.” —The New York Times.
“…a gust of fresh air among racial plays.” —Life Magazine.
