Physical and mental abuse, fueled by racism and sexism and perpetuated through the self-hatred of its victims, is the center of a classic tale given fresh perspective in Dael Orlandersmith’s “Yellowman,” which simply must be seen in the sensual, funny and emotionally searing revival now at TAG through Feb. 5.

The two-actor memory play is set in islands off the coast of South Carolina and in New York City, and follows its lead characters, Alma and Eugene, from childhood through young adulthood.

Wendy Pearson entirely inhabits the role that Orlandersmith played in the original off-Broadway production in 2002, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

As Alma, the dark-skinned daughter of Thelma, she describes her 6-foot-tall mother as one of many long-suffering women who were “big, black, awkward — picking cotton in dresses … women who knew their place,” perceiving that to “question anything made them uppity” in society’s eyes.

She befriends the lighter-skinned, “yellow” Eugene, played with energy and charm by Curtis Duncan. (Both actors play all of the female and male roles).

Eugene, born to a “yellow” mother and a dark father, recalls a terrifying scene in which his father verbally attacks him for his color and Eugene, a small, sweet child, feels hatred blossom within him.

The tremendously appealing Alma, who sees and questions everything — including herself — with a sharp, quick yet good-natured wit, wants another life than that of her alcoholic mother, who blames Alma’s blackness for her father’s abandonment of them. “I can take from the books I read. … I can have a new voice — my own voice,” she muses with a smile.

Although she does get to Hunter College in New York City, where she struts her stuff with different walks through different neighborhoods, she learns that freedom comes at a cost.

Alma and Eugene fall in love, and when they first make love, she nervously chastises herself in her mother’s voice, calling herself “fat black thing” and wondering, “How do I look against these white sheets?”

In this and many other ways, under the bold yet sensitive direction of Derrick Brown, “Yellowman” shows how members of stigmatized minority groups internalize the prejudiced hatred with which they’re treated by the white majority, applying it to themselves and their peers.

Although there’s too much sharing and shouting during the play’s violent climax,“Yellowman” ends on an elegiac, ambiguous note that, to judge by Jan. 13’s opening night, will keep audiences talking long after the curtain falls.

Don’t miss it.

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STAGE CREDITS:

Wendy Pearson (Alma, Ophelia, Thelma), Curtis Duncan (Eugene, Robert, Alton, Wyce, Grandfather); directed by Derrick Brown; costumes by Chris Valles; set design by Derrick Brown & Andy Alvarado; lighting by Thomas Tochiki.