Bee-Luther-Hatchee for Black History Month

Last night we went to see the current production at Stamford Theatre Works. The Show is called Bee-Luther-Hatchee. This is Black History month; historically STW does a production on this theme in February. This was by far the best Black History Month production I can ever remember seeing. Here's some of the information I found online about the show:

Synopsis:The editor of a best-selling memoir by an 80-year-old african-american woman finally meets the author, whom she has come to think of as a friend, even a mother figure. But the writer's true identify forces her to rethink her most basic beliefs about art and race. BEE-LUTHER-HATCHEE. noun. A far-away, damnable place; the next station after the stop for the Biblical hell; an absurd place or an ironic situation located in a particular place; a mythical place. -- Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang
Shelita Burns, an African-American editor, publishes Bee-luther-hatchee, the autobiography of a reclusive 72-year-old black woman named Libby Price. Shelita has never met Libby, and when the book wins a prestigious award she decides to deliver it to her in person. To her profound shock, the actual author of the book is a white man named Sean Leonard. Furious and resentful, Shelita accuses Sean of perpetrating a hoax, while he defends the book as a truthful work of imagination. Their confrontation, played out on the edge of the racial divide, builds to a jarring act of violence.

"In our world of hot-button topics and uncivil discourse, it's rare that you get to hear an eloquent, complex argument where the sides are so evenly matched that you keep changing your mind about who's "right." It's even more unusual to see such an argument laid out in a contemporary drama with well-rounded characters who are more than authorial mouthpieces. The combination makes Thomas Gibbons' Bee-luther-hatchee...a powerful, provocative piece of theatrical writing. You want to run down the street twisting people's arms to see it... Poetic and subtle, asking penetrating questions without simple answers...one of the best plays of the season. It deserves a large audience."
--Linda Eisenstein, Cleveland Plain Dealer

This production definitely had us debating the premise all the way home, and, it is still very much on my mind. If the show ends up in your area, I strongly suggest you go to see it!