The Nicetiesis a play written by Eleanor Burgess.

The two-character drama, set in the spring of 2016, centers on a black student, Zoe (Jordan Boatman), and a 60-something white female history professor, Janine (Lisa Banes), who meet to discuss Zoe’s paper about the impact of slavery on the American Revolution.

Their discussion quickly turns from the arguments and ideas contained in Zoe’s work into an explosive confrontation about broader cultural and historical concerns involving race in America, white privilege, and power imbalances on college campuses.

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The Yale-educated Burgess used a 2015 incident at her alma mater as inspiration for the play.

That fall, a campus email cautioning students against insensitive Halloween costumes generated a response from a professor who defended the holiday as a time of transgression.

The debate sparked weeks of protests and months of scorching discussion.

Burgess, who had graduated several years before, used this story for creation of her own play.

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