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Overview

Synopsis

Playwright Matthew Lopez’s first work, The Whipping Man, has been sweeping regional and professional theaters since its debut. The play examines a vital, but not often spoken of period in American history, the post-Civil War South, as former slaves and slavemasters struggled to acclimate to the new emancipated social order. The play is set in Richmond, Virginia in April of 1865. The Confederacy has just surrendered and throughout the South, slaves are being freed and soldiers are returning home. Caleb DeLeon, grievously wounded and starving, returns to his family home in Richmond to discover an empty house. His mother and father have fled from the destruction of the war. Only Simon, the old family slave, remains. Simon is guarding and tending to the property as best he can while waiting for the return of his wife and daughter, also former slaves of the DeLeons. That same day, John, another former slave of the DeLeons’, also returns. He has been using the house as a cache for items he has looted from the surrounding abandoned homes. The three must navigate their new relationships while settling with demons from the past, culminating in a Passover Seder where former master and slaves must decide where honesty and loyalty will lie.

Show Information

Category
Play
Age Guidance
Thirteen Plus (PG-13)
Number of Acts
2
First Produced
2006
Genres
Drama, Historical/Biographical
Settings
Period, Unit/Single Set
Time & Place
1865, richmond, virginia
Cast Size
small
Licensor
Samuel French
Ideal For
Diverse Cast, Small Cast, Star Vehicle Male, All-Male Cast, Includes Mature Adult, Adult Characters

Context


Plot


Characters

Name Part Size Gender Vocal Part

Simon

Lead

Male

Spoken

Caleb

Lead

Male

Spoken

John

Lead

Male

Spoken

Songs

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A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.

Monologues

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Scenes

All scenes are the property and copyright of their owners. Scenes are presented on StageAgent for educational purposes only. If you would like to give a public performance of this scene, please obtain authorization from the appropriate licensor.

Key Terms

    The movement responsible for ending the transatlantic slave trade in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

    A civil war in the United States fought between the Union and the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865.

    The states in the most southern and eastern part of the U.S.A.

    Denoting or taking place in a New York City theatre that is smaller than those in the Broadway theatre district and typically stages less expensive/commercial productions.

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