I read this play because my husband is taking an introductory theater class that uses it as a text, and he recommended that I read it, as well, so we could have a little book club of sorts. It reminds me somewhat of Toni Morrison's Beloved in its use of the ghost motif to examine black history and the shadow of the past on the characters' lives. Each has his or her methods of coping with the hardships they face, from incarceration to lack of power over one's economic life to the deaths of loved ones, and different ideas about how to move forward and improve their situation. I've never seen this staged, but I would like to, because the dialogue sings--sometimes literally--and the action builds up to a tense crescendo of overlapping voices.