It’s nighttime, and they’re visited by the ghost of Walking Man – Early’s son and Gail’s husband, who kisses his loved ones in their sleep and delivers the prophetic message that Gail will die within the next 24 hours. Part one is set in the present, inside the close quarters of the family’s isolated cabin, built by the feisty matriarch Early and inhabited with her daughter Gail, granddaughter Joy, and great-grandson Ha-Ha. Patricia McGregor directs with the perfect combination of humor and sensitivity, and the stellar cast of ten delivers it all with total empathy and irresistible humanity. Written by Nathan Alan Davis, the story, told in reverse chronological order, combines poetic passages of direct-address commentary with enacted scenes in everyday language (expert voice coaching by Kate Wilson) of familial developments and interactions, and loving apparitions of their deceased, who remain in their hearts and minds forever.

It’s a beautifully written, brilliantly acted, and masterfully directed epic saga following four generations of one Black family in the woods of southern Illinois that kept me thoroughly engrossed, entertained, and affected I could have stayed for another three-and-a-half hours. Three plays, 70 years, ten characters, three-and-a-half hours if you’re concerned about the length of The Refuge Plays – an Off-Broadway debut production of Roundabout Theatre Company, in conjunction with New York Theatre Workshop, playing a limited engagement at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre – don’t be.

Seventeen debut showcase