In the Red and Brown Water
In the Red and Brown Water, the first work in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brother/Sister Plays trilogy, draws on folk tales, Yoruba mythology and contemporary poets and playwrights to tell a coming-of-age story set in a Louisiana bayou housing project.
The main character, Oya, is a teenage sprinter looking for a way out of her limited circumstances. McCraney’s spare, muscular language and inventive approach elevates Oya’s ordinary life — and the lives of those around her — into a semi-mythic story of universally shared human experience.