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Fairview
Fairview
Fairview
Ebook121 pages1 hour

Fairview

By Jackie Sibblies Drury

4.5/5

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About this ebook

Written by Scribd Editors

Jackie Sibblies Drury dramatizes long-standing racial issues in her play Fairview. What appears at first to be a standard family dramedy takes an abrupt turn into a discomfiting examination of racial divides in America.

It all begins simply enough, with preparations underway for Grandma’s birthday dinner. But then everything starts to be a bit off. The radio is not working properly, and the birthday cake burns. The next act brings in a group of white observers who comment on what race they would be if not white. The lines blur in the final act as the characters are intermixed on stage, and finally the fourth wall between the audience and cast is breached as uncomfortable questions are raised.

Drury is a Brooklyn-based playwright who graduated from Yale and Brown University’s MFA playwriting program She received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2019 for Fairview and has also won the David Wickham Prize in Playwriting in 2015.

This hard-hitting drama is a timely examination of racial perspectives, and ultimately brings audiences into the actors’ space to address long-standing prejudices.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherTheatre Communications Group
Release dateJul 23, 2019
ISBN9781559369145
Fairview
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Reviews for Fairview

4.5/5

22 ratings3 reviews

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  • 5/5
    Incredible. I can’t wait to see this staged! Thank you for this work!!
  • 5/5
    Great Play! Great story! Amazing! So clever! Pulitzer Prize winner!
  • 5/5
    All the words. IN an unusual order. That makes sense. Perfectly unsettling sense.

Book preview

Fairview - Jackie Sibblies Drury

ACT ONE

Lights up on a negro:

Beverly is peeling carrots, real carrots,

on a theater set that looks like a nice living/dining room

in a nice house in a nice neighborhood.

Music is playing.

Beverly lip-synchs to the song.

She dances and peels her carrots.

She dances and peels until the music from the speaker

goes a little funny.

There is a glitch of some kind.

It makes Beverly nervous.

Beverly glares at the speaker.

The speaker fixes itself.

Beverly thinks:

Everything is fine.

Everything is going to be perfect today.

And then Beverly does that thing:

she looks at herself in a pretend mirror hung on the fourth wall.

It’s a very normal thing to have happen in a play.

Beverly checks hair, outfit, teeth, she looks good.

As she applies lipstick, she starts to dance again.

Dayton enters with a bunch of silverware.

He sees Beverly.

Dayton thinks:

Ooooh yes, my wife is a sexy woman.

Eventually Beverly feels herself being looked at.

She turns to discover Dayton, startled, she lets out a little cry:

BEVERLY: What are you looking at?!

DAYTON: You.

BEVERLY: Me?

DAYTON: That’s right.

BEVERLY: You can’t just sneak up on people, Dayton.

DAYTON: I can’t sneak up on you, you’re my wife.

BEVERLY: You say hello, you don’t just watch a person.

DAYTON: Sneak up on—Beverly I live here.

BEVERLY: You don’t just watch a person,

and they don’t know you’re there,

and you’re just standing there just looking at them.

DAYTON: But what if I just like to look at you?

BEVERLY: Can’t you look at me And say hello?

DAYTON: Uh-un. Not when you look as fine as you do.

BEVERLY: Oh, Dayton. You can be sweet when you want to, can’t you.

DAYTON: Come over here and give me a kiss.

BEVERLY: But I’m so behind! If I don’t get these carrots ready—

DAYTON: Beverly Frasier if you don’t come over here and show me what you think of me—?

(She gives him a peck on the cheek, and flees.

He chases her, pulls her in for a bigger kiss.

She squeals.

They are close, and it’s sweet.

But then she notices the silverware he brought.)

BEVERLY: And what do we have here?

DAYTON: Silverware.

BEVERLY: I asked for place settings for six.

And what did you bring me?

DAYTON: Six forks, six knives, six spoons.

BEVERLY: Dessert forks and butter knives and serving spoons.

What’s a person supposed to eat with that?

DAYTON: … Food?

BEVERLY: Oh Dayton. This is Mama’s birthday.

And she was already in a mood, when she went upstairs.

Everything must be perfect today.

DAYTON: Beverly. I am here. Here I am. Trying to help you.

BEVERLY: Help me lose my mind is what.

DAYTON: Trying to help you keep it.

So, tell me, woman: what do you want from me?

BEVERLY: I want … six forks, six knives, six spoons.

DAYTON: Alright, Beverly.

BEVERLY: I’m going to seat Mama here—

DAYTON: At the head of the table?

BEVERLY: It’s her birthday.

DAYTON: It’s my house.

BEVERLY: Our house. So, Mama. Me. Keisha. Tyrone. You. And Jasmine.

DAYTON: You didn’t tell me Jasmine’s coming.

BEVERLY: Didn’t I? Of course Jasmine is coming. She’s my sister.

DAYTON: I thought you wanted this dinner to go well.

BEVERLY: Dayton, please.

DAYTON: That woman knows every thing about everybody

and never has one good thing to say about anybody.

She’s a one-woman FBI NSA KGB.

BEVERLY: She’s family. And family is / everything.

DAYTON: Everything. I know. Shut up Dayton and get the silverware. I know.

(Dayton exits.)

BEVERLY: Thank you Dayton.

You’re a big help.

And bring the root vegetables you bought!

I need to get them in the oven.

And the cheese plate!

Dayton?

You bought the root vegetables that I asked you to, didn’t you?!

Dayton?

Dayton!?!

How come he can hear me

when I’m not even talking to him,

but the second I ask him for something he can’t hear a thing?

(A doorbell ring sound.)

Company’s here!

Oh no! Company’s here!

And I’m not ready.

(Beverly runs around in a last-minute scramble:)

Oh, I haven’t even started the root vegetables,

they need at least an hour!

Oh no, Dayton!

Oh my lord.

Dayton, what did I say about putting beer on my coffee table?

(A doorbell ring sound.

She hides the beer bottle on the set.)

Like he doesn’t care What we look like to people.

Dayton, where is the cheese plate?

Lord give me strength.

Dayton?!

Dayton!?

Dayton!?!!?!

(Dayton enters with the cheese plate.)

DAYTON: I’ll answer the door. You finish up in the kitchen.

BEVERLY: Oh, I just wanted everything to go well today.

DAYTON: Everything’s going to be fine. Don’t worry.

(Beverly exits.

Jasmine enters with a bottle of rosé

and some flowers for Mama.)

JASMINE: Haaaaaaaaaaaaay! How you doin’

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