'Home'

most Black men do not write for Black women. 

some evade writing for Black women by simply creating storylines that can exist without them, while others do it more tastefully. 

August Wilson does not let his Black women talk to each other. 

Tyler Perry’s Black women have to suffer. 

and most of the Black women in Samm-Art Williams’ play, Home, do nothing but antagonize the main character, Cephus.

the play features an ensemble cast of two women, and one man. it is my understanding that ‘Home’ is a comedy. while phrases like “chocolate-coated quaaludes” and the absolutely ridiculous portrayal of women did make me laugh, I’m not sure that was the playwright’s intention. 

contrary to what I found commonly accepted on the internet, the script states that the play begins in Cross-Roads, North Carolina, where Cephus was born and raised. all Cephus knows and cares about is the land, and when he is drafted for the Vietnam War he does not go. as a result he is jailed, and loses everything— including his family farm— while he is away. after being released from jail, he moves north to a “very, very large” city. he finds work, but is almost immediately fired for lying about his criminal record, and finds himself homeless, living on the streets. after a brief while, Cephus magically receives a letter saying he should move back to Cross Roads because someone bought his farm and put it in his name. Cephus returns to the farm, goes on and on about how much he missed it, and adjusts to the changes that have been made in the south since he’s been gone.

at the end of the play, it is revealed that Pattie Mae bought the farm for Cephus. 

Pattie Mae, Cephus’s primary love interest, left Cephus to go to school in Virgnia at the beginning of the play. she stays in contact with him for a little while, before delivering a lengthy speech about how she has “outgrown the land.” she gets married, moves to Richmond, and begins to exist in another realm, only appearing in the play as a figment of Cephus’s imagination, until it is revealed that she purchased his farm at the end.

I think it’s absolutely ridiculous, but according to Williams’ script, it was Pattie Mae’s dream to be with Cephus and make pies for him. and there is nothing wrong with wanting a humble country life,  this is just odd because Pattie Mae explicitly says the “socioeconomic conditions” of the rural south aren’t up to her standards. she was in love with Cephus, but when she left Cross Roads, she married a lawyer and her lack of communication with Cephus would allude to her being content with her new life. not sure why she would come back.

with the exception of Pattie Mae, the women Cephus engages with during the play, romantically and otherwise, are only mentioned or actualized to perpetuate trauma. when Pattie Mae goes to college, Cephus “takes up” with his second cousin, Pearlene, and though she eventually leaves him for a marine, the rest of the women in his family jealously chastise him. when he goes to jail, his Aunt Hannah sends him a letter delivering nothing but bad news and notices of death. then Cephus moves north, and Myrna does her best to take all of his money.

Pattie Mae is the only woman in the play that isn’t awful and even she is questionable. 

in contrast, the men are extended an immense amount of grace. all of the characters are heavily flawed, but the male characters seemed to be more fully developed. Cephus recalls and shares several memories throughout the script, and Williams uses those stories to expound upon the nature of the male characters and how they have positively impacted Cephus, despite their downfalls. by presenting these characters in past tense as memories, there is more room to recall multiple aspects of their personalities.  the women in the script are presented in a present tense, giving Williams very little room or time to do much else than vilify them, because that’s how Cephus saw them at the time.

my favorite thing about the play is the poetic nature of the language. it is clear that Williams understands Black rhythmic speech patterns.

the copyright for Home is 1978, and it was nominated for a Tony Award in 1980.

what does that say about the way Black women are perceived?