Originally performed at the Academy Theater in May 1978, the play is R. Cary Bynum's adaptation of Cabbagetown Families, Cabbagetown Food. Lecturer in the theater studies department Brenda Bynum, Annette Coleman and Doris Bucher reprised their roles of Effie Dodd Gray, Aunt Beatty Dalton, and Lila Brookshire, accompanied in their storytelling by musicians Joyce Brookshire and Fritz Rauschenberg. This time around, the play was sponsored by the Emory Women's Center, in celebration of Women's History Month. When we walk on stage and sit in those chairs, it's like we're recreating a familiar world. The familiar world consists of a porch swing, a rocking chair, a regular chair and several plants.
Quilts hanging over the side of the swing and a stand add a homey touch.
The musicians are onstage, seated with the actors, often addressed during dialogue. One of the special aspects of the play is the way in which the women tell their stories more to the audience than to each other. One gets a feeling of sitting and listening to Grandma talk about the old days. It's their story and they actually lived it. The women take turns recounting stories of their lives, beginning with childhood and continuing through work at the mill, love, alcoholism, children and salvation.