About the Show

Inspired by the true story of the 1918 lynching rampage that followed the death of plantation owner Hampton Smith, this New York premiere offers an unflinching look at one of the shameful periods in US History.

Shackled, bound, and trapped within someplace between reality and make believe, lies swollen-bellied, bloodied Mary Turner, the accused murderer Sidney Johnson, and the loving husband Hayes Turner. All are haunted by the voices of the mob. Their torture continues even in the afterlife, where Sidney has reluctantly been given the task of forcing Mary to remember the horrible accounts of her lynching so they both can move on.

Critic Reviews (1)

"Flawed and devastating...The script has its problems, and so does the staging — repetition, sermonizing, a blurriness...Still, the play has a forceful, painful impact...The style, before it shifts into didacticism, evokes a nightmare...The play insists that a reckoning with the past will loosen history's noose, that the truth will set us free. That's a comforting moral after the infanticide. I'm not sure it's one I believe."
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