Ms. Evers' Boys

This Wednesday, the theatre arts students at Howard University hosted a play called Ms. Evers Boys. Too much of my peers' surprise, the play was very intriguing and kept our attention the entire play. The play was a unique tie between deception and love.

The play starred a woman by the name of Ms. Evers, who was a nurse fighting the spread of the sexually transmitted disease, syphilis. She specifically works on a group of boys who were determined to pursue their passion as a musical group. This group won contests and were on at an all time high. They showed their appreciation to Nurse Evers by calling themselves "Ms. Evers' Boys". Then a white doctor, Dr. Douglas, came along who was very accepting of the group, and the group came to trust him. He drew their blood to test for the epidemic in their community, syphilis, and as it turns out, they all had it. Nurse Evers' and Dr. Douglas have a meeting with a black doctor who convinces them to use these boys as the subjects to their experiment. They would use these boys are the control group, meaning they would leave them with the disease, and treat the others in the community to examine the difference.

Years later, the effects of the illness began to kick in on the dancer, Willie. Willie's leg began to give out on him and he was having a hard time dancing. Even with his determination and inspiration from his grandfather, his dancing wasn't the same. It was then that it hit the boys that they needed penicillin, but Ms. Evers convinced the boys that that would be a bad idea and might send them to an early grave. As the effects got worst, one member of the group, Caleb, decided that he wanted the penicillin anyway and got it at a local clinic, while the remaining members listened to Ms. Evers.

Things continued to get worse and Benjamin died from the disease, while Hodman died from ingesting mold that he was convinced would make him feel better. Willie was no longer able to walk without a cane, while Caleb was doing perfectly fine. When Caleb informed Willie on the experiment, Willie approached the doctors and made them realize how they had ruined his life, and took away the one thing he loved the most -dancing. No apologies of monetary compensation could make up for the damage the doctors had done to their boys, both mentally and physically.