Sophie Cox

Julie Wunsch

History of Theatre 2

April 17, 2023

The Chip Woman’s Fortune is a play about a conversation happening in a household,

and it is as simple as that. Silas comes home from work to tell his sick wife, Liza, that men are

going to take away their Victrola away because they haven’t been making payments for it. He

tells her that they must either get payment from Aunt Nancy, the Chip Woman staying with

them who is the caretaker of the house, or she must find somewhere else to stay. Liza and

Emma, their daughter, dislike this decision made by Silas because, “what are we going to do

without her?” they ask. Silas is a kind man, and does not like this decision either, but he tells

them that it must happen in order for them to keep the Victrola, and tells them that he knows

Aunt Nancy is stashing money in the backyard but does not know why. Emma admits she

knows why, it is for her son that is in jail. Silas and Liza are reluctant to letting Jim, the son

who is in jail, into their house but they have so much respect for Aunt Nancy, they allow it.

Jim then hands over all of the money Aunt Nancy stored away for him to Silas and Liza, for

not only the Victrola payment but for all of the kindness they have shown Aunt Nancy. They

then move on to find somewhere else to live, everyone in the house discussing how much

Aunt Nancy did for them once she is gone, saved the Victrola, cared for Liza when she was

sick, and saved Silas’s job.

I believe this story was written to showcase how this conversation and this scenario

could happen to quite literally any family. It is written in a way to highlight the unique speech

the characters used, like having “Ah” replace “I”, and so on, to showcase black relationship
intricacies, but the story is so general that he is telling a story about a family that just so

happens to be black. It is to point out that black people are no different from anyone else. So,

in a way, it is about black people but also not, how it uses the relationships but the main plot

is not their skin color, it is an issue about money which could happen to any family.

I think it is important to present the play today because even still in modern times,

people tend to forget that black people are just the same as everyone else. Like I said before,

this play shows that this situation could happen to anyone, and it showcases how black people

are no different, so to show it in a modern setting, you would be reminding the audience today

the same thing. With Black Lives Matter protests happening, people forget we aren’t

advocating for JUST black lives, we are advocating that black lives matter TOO. Black lives

matter just as much as any other skin color, because we are all the same, which this play is

showcasing.