Pride And Privilege — And Prejudice — On Stage : NPR: In U.S. dramas, African-Americans are often limited to portraying impoverished characters, like slaves or street thugs. So Lydia Diamond wrote a play about the opposite: An extremely wealthy black family vacationing on Martha's Vineyard.
The family in Stick Fly is old money — think the Kennedys. And yet, as Diamond says, 'They live in a world that doesn't even really know they exist.'
Take for instance the scene in which Flip, a plastic surgeon, tells his family about a time he was in Pottery Barn and a white salesgirl followed him around.
'What am I going to steal from Pottery Barn?' he asks.
'This isn't unlike the conversations that I've had with my own family,' Diamond said. 'Privilege doesn't necessarily shelter them from the prejudice that's woven into the fabric of our society.'
