Reparations Play in Washington, D.C.

'40 Acres' at Atlas

Playwright Robert Alexander's theatrical debate about the idea of the U.S. government paying reparations to descendants of slaves will receive staged readings Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. Mary Hall Surface will direct. (Call 202-399-7993 or visit http://www.atlasarts.org.)

Alexander has set "40 Acres: The Reparations Play" in a posh Hilton Head, S.C., retirement community, where an elderly African American couple have joined a class-action lawsuit against companies that profited from slavery. Their conservative 50-ish son thinks it is ridiculous; their college-age grandson is attracted to a more radical black nationalism.

"I think slavery is an issue a lot of Americans want to forget about," says Alexander ("The Last Orbit of Billy Mars," "I Ain't Yo' Uncle: The New Jack Revisionist Uncle Tom's Cabin"), who divides his time between the San Francisco area and Washington. He patterned the patriarch, a retired lawyer, in part on his father, a former NAACP attorney.

Alexander doubts reparations will be made: "I can honestly say today we'll probably see a black president before we see payments for reparations."