Castor and Patience
WORLD PREMIERE!
JULY 21, 28 & 30, 2022 | 7:30 P.M.
JULY 23 & 24, 2022 | 3:00 P.M.
SCPA’S CORBETT THEATER
Music by Gregory Spears
Libretto by Tracy K. Smith
Sung in English with projected lyrics
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The Story
December 31, 1862. On the eve of the Emancipation Proclamation in a praise house on the coast in the American South, a Watch Night service is taking place.
Act I
2008. Castor and his family have driven from Buffalo, New York, to his birthplace in a rural community in the American South. This is the same location where the Watch Night service took place. Castor knows what is at stake on this trip, and his wife Celeste does too, but to a lesser degree. The children, Ruthie and Judah, are oblivious. They stand with him at a ferry landing, awaiting the boat that will take them to where Castor’s cousin Patience lives with her two adult children, West and Wilhelmina.
Patience and West discuss his upcoming departure from the island for work. They both wait for the arrival of Castor’s family.
Castor and his family arrive at Patience’s house. In a private conversation with Celeste, Castor explains that they are financially desperate, and he hopes to negotiate his stake in the family property with Patience.
Later, Judah and Ruthie get to know West.
After dinner, Patience reminisces with Castor. Time flashes back to 1966 when Cato and Clarissa, Castor’s parents, decide to leave the island and move north. While Castor and Patience get reacquainted, West and Wilhelmina take Celeste, Judah, and Ruthie to the Whistle, a spot where locals congregate.
Act II
1870, in the same location. A group of three men and one woman, members of the newly established autonomous freedmen’s community, are gathered on a house porch to swap stories about the many ways whites and the banks have tricked and cheated Black people out of their land deeds.
2008. On the second day of Castor’s family’s visit, West leads them to an unmarked cemetery where some of Castor’s ancestors are buried. Judah and Ruthie learn about the history of their family’s relationship to the land. Castor describes his parents’ experience with redlining in Buffalo in the 1960s. He reveals that a ballooning mortgage underlies his financial struggles. Castor receives a call informing him that he’s defaulted on his loan payments; the bank explains that someone will be repossessing the family car.
Later that same day. Patience’s daughter Wilhelmina comforts the kids. Celeste asks Patience for her blessing in allowing them to sell a few acres. But Patience isn’t convinced that she holds the solution to their problems.
That night. Judah runs outside during a rainstorm and blows off a little steam. At the same time, in one of the guest bedrooms, Castor wakes from a feverish sleep and tries to have it out with his demons.
The following morning. The family all discuss the crisis in the open. Judah, who has been pulling away from his father, informs his parents that he wants to stay on the island rather than return to Buffalo.
The next day. Castor and Celeste’s car has been repossessed. Judah is even more adamant that he wants to stay with Patience’s family. To break the tension, Patience drives everyone to a plot of land and house that once belonged to Castor’s parents. At the house, another flashback to 1966 reveals that Cato was having an affair with Patience’s mother, Jane. This family secret instigated Castor’s parents’ reluctant departure from the island to seek a new life up north. Castor and his family are deeply moved by seeing his childhood home, which Patience has preserved. Celeste tells Castor that this is what they have come there to find.
Late in the day. Cato and Clarissa, as well as Castor, Celeste, and Ruthie, board the ferry for the mainland. Others from both time periods do the same. It remains unknown whether Castor decides to sell the plot of land Patience has saved for him.
The performance will last approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes.
There will be one intermission.