In the Red and Brown Water

This past Saturday my English class and I attended a play called “In the Red and Brown Water”, by Tarell McCraney. Although I was not enthusiastic about going to see a school play during my free time, after watching the play, I had a completely different attitude. The play told a tragic story about a girl named Oya who although had many dreams, was unable to achieve them. Oya was a beautiful girl who loved to run; she was really good at it and was even offered a scholarship. However she didn’t accept the scholarship, instead she postponed it, telling the gentleman who offered the scholarship that she wanted to wait one more year, she wanted to stay home and take care of her mother, mama Moja, who was ill; it would have broken her heart if her mother would of passed away while she was away in college. Regardless of her stay, Mama Moja eventually did pass away, taking all of Oya’s dreams with her. After her mother died, Oya’s life turned upside down. Oya's dreams of leaving her hometown never came true, she was no longer offered the scholarship for running so she quit, and the man she loved, Shango, was unfaithful and eventually left to the army. Oya settled for a man she did not love, Ogun, and despite her desire of having a baby, that also never happened.

         This sad story is told by not only language, but also by tribal music and dancing. The music played a major part. It told the audience when something bad was happening and it smoothed the transformations that occurred in the play, like when scenes would go from “reality” to dreams. Dancing played its part by making the audience feel what the actors were going through. The body movements also made the play very lively and exciting.

        There were certain parts in the play that surprised me, for example, when Oya went to the party and discovered that her friend Elegba, who recently became a father, was gay, or when Shango, whom i thought Oya would end up with, got another girl pregnant; but nothing shocked me as much as the ending, when Oya cut off her ear! I couldn’t believe it. I knew she was no longer happy, and that she was heartbroken, but by cutting off her ear she seemed crazy! She seemed happy cutting it off and handing it to Shango as a souvenir to always remember her by. The ending was unpredictable, and I guess that plays a part in making the production a very good one.

        In my opinion, the only issue I had with this play was that I couldn’t tell what time period they were in. At first, because of the way the actors were dressed, and the way they spoke about certain situations, I got the feeling that it was back in time, but then towards the middle, in the scene of the party, they played recent music and the girls wore dresses that are worn in the present era. I also was unable to figure out that Oya lived in a bad neighborhood until Oya and her aunt told the old man who was chasing Elegba for stealing a chocolate, that if he left his store alone for any longer, the chocolate wouldn't be the only thing missing. Before that I couldn't really understand why she wanted to leave her hometown so badly.

        “In the Red and Brown Water” is not the first play I have seen, however it is still very unique. Out of the few plays I have seen, this play is the only one that doesn't have a happy ending. However this is part of the reason why it is so good. It tends to be more realistic; not everything in life always goes the way people plan it, their tends to be many obstacles that not everyone can always overcome