REALTIVELY CONSCIOUS

ABOUT THE PLAY

Set against the backdrop of the real-life 1998 lynching of James Byrd Jr., the play fictitiously confronts polarizing issues—race, homosexuality, AIDS, populism, nationalism, gender equality—that are as relevant to our current strife and division in the United States as they were then, perhaps more so. Billed as historical fiction, RELATIVELY CONSCIOUS is set in Jasper, Texas, the town in which Byrd was chained behind a truck and dragged until his body split in two and tells the story of four discordant characters brought together by chance at a diner the morning of the murder. As the plot unfolds, each character grows increasingly suspicious of the others while the manhunt for Byrd’s killers takes place all around them. The original sin of a nation takes center stage, dark secrets threaten old relationships, gathering hatred spurs new rivalries, all the while, the world’s media descends on Jasper to cover the murder of Byrd.