←Recommendations of PARTNER OF —

I was fortunate enough to see a staged reading of Partner Of. This is a remarkable and moving short play about the inhumanity of slavery and loss of innocence. Rachael Carnes made a brilliant choice to set this play at a time before Thomas Jefferson began raping Sally Hemings. She forces us to experience the horror with Sally as she begins to understand what is going to happen to her. I heard the play compared to Sophie’s Choice, because of the horrible choice facing Sally and her mother. I agree completely. It’s a poetic play. Hard to watch.

This is a piece of beautiful poetry, three voices speaking together but also entirely separate. Though the setting is well placed in the beginning and in the lines the three women speak, this play features almost no stage directions leaving room for the actors and director to match the poetry of the lines with movement. A really beautiful piece!

There are so many recommendations for this play, and it's not hard to see why. From the opening monologue I was riveted. I loved the interplay of all three characters, and how Carnes uses the well-known Sally and Jefferson story to illuminate the cycle of violence against women.

Extremely powerful. Carnes interweaves her dialogue with grace and brutality, leaving you with nowhere safe to go. This play could be the showstopper of any evening of shorts.

Carnes has crafted a truly masterful piece here. The hauntingly rhythic dialogue sings off the page as we are allowed a glimpse at one of the many hidden stains on America’s historical tapestry. Pure poetry.

Powerful piece of writing that speaks not only to our history and the mistakes of white privilege but also to today and the very sense of how we view ourselves, what we allow for ourselves, and what we do to ourselves in hopes for a better life for future generations. Three wonderful roles for three terrific actresses of color.

“I had the pleasure of seeing Partner Of at the Take Ten Festival in New York. It was the highlight of the evening. After seeing the play, I felt compelled to read the script. Rachel Carnes’ play is a lyrical, reframing of our country’s horrific institution of slavery. Two generations of enslaved women prepare the young Sally Hemings for her inevitable rape by Jefferson. The opening “burn” monologue is a stunning metaphor for the inevitable encounter and its aftermath. Ms. Carnes evokes layers of emotion and provocative imagery with her poetically -styled dialogue. Brilliantly done.”

A beautiful, unforgettable play that I saw staged at the Ivoryton Playhouse. Set in an archeological dig, the bones of the past come to life as 14-year old Sally Hemings is being prepared by her mother and grandmother to go to Paris with Thomas Jefferson.

This play tells a story of horrors that affect the lives of its characters in the home of one of America's "great" men, and the multi-generational aspect of those horrors reflects the way both suffering and survival strategies have become part of the American legacy. There is a timelessness to this piece and a devastating, poetic rendering of pain inflicted and pain suffered.

This short but powerful play left me speechless. Ever since I read it, it's been quietly burning a hole in my heart. I would love to see this staged. The fact that it's set in 1787 does not diminish its relevance and urgency. Read it, stage it!