Orpheus Descending

Act One

In a dry-goods store in a small southern town, Dolly and Beulah are laying out a buffet supper for the return of the store’s owner, Jab Torrance. While they work, they gossip and reveal that Jabe has had surgery in Memphis but is known to be dying. Beulah then brings up his wife, Lady, revealing that he “bought” her when she was 18 and had just lost her father and had her heart broken by David Cutrere. Lady’s father was an Italian immigrant who owned an orchard, which he turned into a “wine garden” during Prohibition. However, his decision to sell liquor to a black man incensed the town. His orchard was set ablaze and he died in the fire that burned down his orchard.

Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Carol Cutrere, who arrives in the store barefoot and needing to use the telephone. While she makes a telephone call, the Temple sisters come down into the store and gossip about her with Dolly and Beulah Carol has been run out of the town for her behavior and