Personal History by Dominic Taylor

Personal History follows an African-American couple as they navigate three moments in American life, stretched out over a century in the city of Chicago. The highly educated pharmacist Eugene enters the world of the play in 1903, outraged that he is overqualified and underemployed. At an elegant parlor party hosted by his white business associate, Eugene scandalizes the other guests by challenging their comfortable liberalism. He also meets his future bride, Bethany, herself an accomplished business owner. Toying with time, the play has the couple moving into this same home in an exclusive all-white neighborhood in the early 1950s. Race and class are further jumbled as the action shifts to the 1990s -- the house is now a chic restaurant where Eugene and Bethany, divorced years earlier, have their final transformative encounter.