Pulitzer Prize finalist Zora Howard describes her play “Hang Time” as “a talking play.” In it, three men have a meandering chat, bantering about love, life and the blues. Underneath the surface of their 60-minute conversation lies a poignant portrait of Black men in America.

The three actors carry the show. Julian Rozzell plays Bird, the older, wiser voice of the trio; Kamal Bolden plays Slim, the middle-aged grandstander; and Bryce Foley plays Blood, the fiery, emotional youngster. Like the Holy Trinity, they are positioned clustered together on the stage, with two slightly behind the third.

“I imagine that folks who come to see this will have met these men at some point,” said Howard. “You know, the men that set up shop on a street corner with their lawn chairs. It’s a very public and private conversation, public in the sense that there are folks passing by and they are in a public space and private in the sense that what they share is intimate and personal.”

The public/private dynamic translates into the theater, where this personal conversation is overheard by the audience. In these men’s vulnerable moments, the audience is staring at them, and there’s nowhere else to look. Howard wants the viewers to feel uncomfortable, to engage in that relationship between witness and subject and to interrogate that discomfort.

“‘Hang Time’...is an extraordinary, poetic exploration of Black masculinity and emotional intimacy,” said Ronee Penoi, interim executive director of the Office of the Arts & ArtsEmerson. “We are thrilled to offer this powerful, contemplative piece to Boston audiences, in what promises to be one of the most potent performances of our 15th season.”

“Hang Time” runs at Arts- Emerson Oct. 9-12. The performance is produced by The Flea, a company designed to support experimental works by Black, brown and queer artists through producing partnerships, direct financial support and other resources.

The play isn’t anchored in a particular time or place because it’s as relevant to our current moment as it would have been in the United States in the mid-1800s. Howard hopes audience members are encouraged to reflect on the themes.

“‘Hang Time is an American play,’” said Howard. “The setting is anytime, all the time. Racialized violence is not something of our past, it is something of our present, and as far as I can see it, until we do some real collective reckoning facing ourselves and our history in this country, it will be of our future as well.”

ON THE WEB

Learn more at artsemerson.org/events/hang-time