JUST THE TWO OF US

“you—enigmatic woman exploding
from clouds and intestines, riverbanks,
kneecaps, veins and horizons
tongues embroidered with eyelashes.

you burn in my throat
i walk your footsteps
singing.

you are here. you are there.
you will never go away.
you kiss your own breath
sleepwalk your eyes
stretch out with mouths
singing your legs.”

— Sonia Sanchez, from “Belly, Buttocks, and Straight Spines”

Just the Two of Us is a play that places bonds at its core—who we connect with throughout our lives, what relationships we prioritize, and how love and caretaking play a role in those connections. The thematic intersections of motherhood, daughterhood, Blackness, and womanhood are key to the relationships that Phanésia Pharel explores in this play, and it was an immense privilege being a part of the development of new work that centers that which is so often pushed to the margins. Moving between the present and the past, shifting temporally through memories that Lady of Mind and Bean—mother and daughter—share, this play is a beautiful reflection on family, legacy, mortality, and the equal ephemerality and weightiness of what it means to achieve excellence. Just the Two of Us asks its audience to engage with the questions—What is that unnamable covenant formed between mothers and daughters? How do we grapple with the pressures of achieving The American Dream? and, who are our forever friends?