Written by Kirsten Greenidge and directed by Rebecca Taichman, Luck of the Irish  played at the Lincoln Center Theater. I saw it on the 6th; four days before it ended.  I contemplated reviewing it and here I am with my decision.

The stage was an interesting blue print display with props of a small park which became a backyard and sometimes a different setting altogether. What I enjoyed most was the educational aspects of the story. Previous to the play I had not heard of the term ghost buying. A phrase which applied to an indirect form of purchasing real estate.  People of color were forced to use this method of acquiring a home because it was illegal for them to buy property.  What transpired was that when a black American family wanted, and was ready to purchase a home, they would approach a caucasian American to buy the property and in turn transfer it over to them. Imagine that!

Credit

The story is about an American couple of African descent in the 1950’s: Lucy and Rex Taylor (Eisa Davis and Victor Williams), who uses the ghost buying method through a caucasian American couple of Irish descent: Mr. Donavan and Mrs. Donavan.  Played by Dashiell Eaves Robert Hogan, and Jenny O’Hara. After the transaction, the Donavans, Mrs. Donavan especially, proved untrustworthy. Having been unhappy about buying for the Taylors in the first place, owing to her feelings that she and her family were more deserving of a home of their own–due to their superiority in race–Mrs. Donavan despised aiding the Taylors. Through her husband she maneuvered to get more money from the Taylors, threatening not to transfer the property deeds into their names if they should refuse.

O’Hara was wonderful in her role. She sweats properly as the poor uneducated Irish American wife  of racist beliefs doing all she can to cater for her six children. She is quite consumed by jealousy and enraged that what she feels she is entitled to is being unfairly passed onto the Taylors.  Davis as Lucy is very breathtaking. She was quite convincing in her display of emotions  and her no-nonsense attitude. The play goes back and forth in time. Through Lucy and Rex’s time and then back to the year 2000, where the events of the past were now affecting their grandchildren. The grandchildren were at first oblivious to the situation under which their home was acquired. We watch them learn, then process what their grandparents went through as they now in turn try to hold onto what is rightfully theirs.