sees him race out of the apartment building and
down toward the river and a freighter that is just
moving out from the shore. Dave Jones is falsely ac-
cused of the murder on the basis of his proud asser-
tions that he was going to spend the night with
Violette. Jones is hanged, and Tamona escapes. The
story closes with the detached observation that “ev-
erything and everybody in the case was side by
side—like peas in the pod. But the pod was sealed.
And the peas did not touch each other.”
“A Sealed Pod” is one of Bonner’s stark fic-
tional accounts of gritty urban life, marital unhap-
piness, and the deadly consequences of betrayal.
Bibliography
Flynn, Joyce, and Joyce Occomy Striklin. Frye Street &
Environs: The Collected Works of Marita Bonner.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1987.
Second Comin’, TheGeorge Bryant(1931)
A shocking three-act play by white playwright
George Bryant that revolved around African-
American religious life and the interracial treachery
that could pervade supposedly sanctified communi-
ties. The Reverend Wilbur, a white minister, at-
tempts to save an African-American church by
performing a major miracle. One of the members,
aptly named Nicodemus, dares the minister to cre-
ate a black Jesus. Wilbur does so but through devi-
ous and sinful means. He hypnotizes and then has
intercourse with Glory, the woman Nicodemus
loves. Wilbur then predicts that Glory is a modern
Virgin Mary and will bear a child. She does, but the
child is white-skinned. The church erupts in chaos:
The misguided, predatory reverend drops dead, the
church bell atop the steeple falls to the ground, and
Nicodemus is beside himself with rage.
The play opened at the Provincetown Play-
house on 8 December 1931. There were eight per-
formances. The cast was “largely composed of
Negroes” (NYT,8 December 1931, 36) and as such
represented the emerging works about African-
American culture by white writers that increas-
ingly featured actors of color. A. B. Comathiere
starred as Nicodemus, Irving Hopkins as Wilbur,
and Enid Raphael as Glory. The programs dis-
tributed for the shows included a comment from
Bryant in which he noted that he had intended to
“present an authentic study of the emotional
phases of the Negro as they are expressed in their
search for religion” (NYT,9 December 1931, 32).
Respected NEWYORKTIMESdrama critic J.
Brooks Atkinson characterized The Second Comin’
as a “weird brew of truthful observation and rea-
soning, of worried drama writing and of a solemn
accouchement mercifully conducted off-stage.”
Atkinson suggested that the realism that Bryant
had sought emerged only when “the Negroes were
alone on the stage, singing, swaying and arguing.”
Bryant apparently failed to achieve the persuasive
authenticity of writers like MARCCONNELLY, the
Pulitzer Prize–winning author of the acclaimed
play THEGREENPASTURES: A FABLE(1930).Bibliography
Atkinson, J. Brooks. “The Play: The Parson’s Dilemma.”
New York Times,9 December 1931, 32.
“Theatrical Notes.” New York Times,8 December 1931,
36.Selected Gems of Poetry, Comedy, and
DramaMercedes Gilbert(1931)
A self-edited collection of works that the multital-
ented actress and writer MERCEDESGILBERTpub-
lished in 1931. The volume, produced by the
Boston-based Christopher Publishing House, in-
cluded a variety of Gilbert’s previously published
works.Bibliography
Gilbert, Mercedes. Selected Gems of Poetry, Comedy, and
Drama; Aunt Sara’s Wooden God.Introduction by
Susanne Dietzel. New York: G. K. Hall, 1997.Select Plays: Santa Claus Land, Jepthah’s
Daughter, The Prince of Peace, Bachelor’s
ConventionCarrie Law Morgan Figgs(1923)
A self-published collection of plays by poet and
playwright CARRIELAWMORGANFIGGS. The title
page made a pointed note that “Production of
these Plays is FREE to Amateurs, but the sole Pro-
fessional Rightsare reserved by the Author. Moving
Picture Rights reserved.” Two of the four works were
based on biblical stories, one was a children’s play,
and another was a contemporary “comedy drama.”476 Second Comin’, The