A DRAMA BY LYNN NOTTAGE

Winner of the 2004 New York Drama Critics’ Circle for Best Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for John Glassner Playwriting Award, 2005 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play

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In 1905 New York City, Esther, a Black seamstress, is in great demand for the intimate apparel she creates for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. Though leading a life that provides joy to so many, she remains lonely and longing for a husband and a future. Through a mutual acquaintance, she begins a correspondence with a lonesome Caribbean man named George and soon he persuades her that they should marry, sight unseen. When George arrives in the city, he is not the kind of man she longs for. Esther’s heart is drawn to the Hasidic shopkeeper from whom she buys cloth, and his heart is with her. Esther is hit with the reality of the situation and she is forced to face a future that she is truly unprepared for.