With inspiration from Yoruba mythology, folk tales, and modern poets, Tarell Alvin McCraney weaves a realistic tale of heartbreak and hard decisions. Set in San Pere, Louisiana In the Red and Brown Water tells the tale of Oya, a young girl with a promising future, and the other people in her community.
Summary:
Oya is “a beautiful girl” who begins the play with a promising athletic scholarship for track and field. However, when Oya’s mother becomes sick, Oya takes on the responsibility of caring for her, putting her future on hold, but promising that the following year she would return and claim that scholarship. Not long after, her mother passes away, and her world begins to change. She soon learns that her athletic scholarship is no longer available, meaning that she could not go to college.
Instead Oya focuses on her love life, but is torn between her feelings for two different men; Ogun, who is the safe option who she loves but not as much as she loves Shango, who Oya’s mother had warned her about but has always seemed to capture her fancy. As Oya gets older she wants to start building a family with someone, but learns that she is infertile.
Her disappointment and frustration with her life and circumstances becomes increasingly evident. Oya breaks up with Ogun so that he is no longer tied down to someone that does not love him as much as he loves her. Shun, a girl from around the way, tells Oya that she is pregnant with Shango’s child, creating a final spiral for Oya. As she realizes that she will never be able to give Shango a child, she instead cuts off her own ear, and gives it to him, as a piece of herself, before bleeding out.
Characters:
Oya — A woman of color; begins the play as a girl, ends the play as a woman
Elegba — Of Creole heritage; Godbrother to Oya; begins the play as a boy, ends the play as a man
Ogun Size — A man of color; with Oya for a time; nephew of Aunt Elegua
Mama Moja/The Woman Who Reminds You — A mother of color; mother of Oya, godmother to Elegba
Aunt Elegua — A woman of color; Aunt of Ogun; godmother of Oya
Nia — girl from around the way
Shun — A fair woman of color; girl from around the way; friend of Nia
Shango — A dark man of color; with Oya for a time
The Man From The State, O Li Roon — A white man
Egungun — A boy from around the way; a DJ
