Tonya Pinkins and Dianne Wiest sank into chairs at the back of the room after a recent rehearsal of the play “Rasheeda Speaking.” Ms. Pinkins sipped a mug of tea; Ms. Wiest wrapped herself in a gray cardigan. The antagonism of the last scene they’d worked lingered.
“I will say,” Ms. Pinkins said, “this has been very hard to shake off.”
“It’s been hard.” Ms. Wiest agreed.
Ms. Pinkins added, “I’ve gone home and been kind of depressed.”
“Very depressed,” Ms. Wiest said. “And I’m the white person.”
A dark comedy about racism both covert and obvious, written by the Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson, “Rasheeda Speaking” begins previews Tuesday at the Signature Center in a New Group production directed by Cynthia Nixon.
It stars Ms. Pinkins, a Tony Award winner, as Jaclyn, an African-American receptionist in a surgeon’s office, and Ms. Wiest, a two-time Oscar winner, as Ileen, her white co-worker.