God is a Woman
and she’s been waiting in a hospital bed.
Going beyond realism and bending Greek tragedy elements with an American Western feel, Alesha Harris’, Is God Is, successfully uses blood relationships in correlation to upbringing to approach violence against people of color. The initial journey to revenge begins when their mother, She, tells the girls she’s on her death bed and invites them to see her through a letter. Before going into meet with her we get context to who She is.
“Anaia: You ready?
Racine: To see God?
Anaia God?
Racine: Well, she made us, didn’t she?”
She—aka God—gives her twin daughters, Anaia and Rancine, specific instructions. She tells her daughters, as her last wish, to finally get revenge on the man who hurt them. We learn they are all burn victims as a result of a fire this man, their father, started when the girls were younger. She, their mother, also says show no remorse when they kill him, “Dead, real dead. Lots of blood is fine.” In this first scene, Harris plays into the upbringing of these daughters carefully. In order to later on act violently, these daughters physically feel the violence as adolescents. The man wants to start over, the only way he knows how is murder. But rather than him killing them one by one, he attempts to burn down the house. This deliberate and gruesome act of violence builds the rage behind Anaia and Rancine. When She finally gives them permission to attack back, of course they have to listen, she is their creator.
This entire set up draws from Greek Tragedy and plays into the American Western theme because the Man kills his family in order to get the American dream. Man wants a new family, a house in the suburbs, a fresh start. Acting with such rage and no remorse to do something so violent to his blood related family draws from the Greek tragedies. Harris builds from this to justify the violence these sisters will unleash to not just Man but any man who steps in their way.
As they fight their way to the house of Man, they finally arrive and find not only has Man achieved the American Dream, he has remarried a woman named Angie and had another set of twins. As they approach Angie with vengeful hate, Angie worries they’re here to collect for all the years Man never paid. Anaia tells her, “We ain’t animals. We on a mission. From God.” Since the death before this, Rancine carries around a rock in a sock as a weapon. This exchange results in Angie’s death via rock in a sock. Although the sisters support each other and understand the importance of being bound by God’s blood, Anaia has a negative reaction to Angie’s death; she’s going too far.
Much like how Anaia comes off as the better of the two, the half brother Scotch plays the good one. And similar to the persuasive mean one Racine, Riley in terms is the bad. To get inside the house and achieve their creator, their God—She’s wish, they convince their half brothers they were strippers hired by their father as an early present.
At this point, the sisters learn their brothers had a significantly better life than them. More importantly, that Man never mentions a life before meeting the brother’s mother. Racine can’t comprehend the information she gathers. Their is another small shift we see when these two blood related siblings delve into the past, a shift that calls back to Greek tragedies. Again and more violently, Racine unleashes rage and murders again occur. Except in the midst of
Racine’s violent rage of killing one brother, it is her who is taken out by Anaia. Even through the struggle of fighting for her life Anaia stands up and continues her quest to fulfill She’s wish.
Uniquely rooting back to American Western Harris delivers the following in stage directions.
(The car stops. ANAIA lifts her sister, dragging her out of view. She waits. A car door opens and closes and MAN gets out. We hear hard-soled shoes on the ground. He stops near RILEY’s body for a moment. He continues, stopping at SCOTCH’s body. He walks near the bushes, very close to where ANAIA is hiding, then turns again towards the car.
In the driveway he takes off his shoes and socks, slowly, methodically. He removes his suit jacket and tie. He rolls up his pants legs, whistling. Finally, he takes off his hat and we see his face for the first time.)
This time, Harris tackles the original American Western theme, the Wild West. Man, who other characters talk about the entire play finally enters the scene. He whistles as he removes his urban clothes and hat. He enters in the same manner of all Cowboys in Western films, like a masculine mystic figure ready for vengeance. The pivotal moment relies heavily on the final fight between this blood relationship and acts parallel to a Western showdown. Anaia and Man begin a verbal argument, as it turns aggressive Racine returns to help her sister. As Racine risks her own life to save her sister and complete God’s wish she burns alive in yet another fire Man ignites.
Harris creates a world where the violence of these sisters generates from the lack of familial upbringing and nature in their youth. The added elements of Greek tragedy and American Western contribute to the way these sisters approach violence and how destroy their own people rather than uplift them.
