The play is a series of monologues based on interviews conducted by Smith with people involved in the Crown Heights crisis, both directly and as observers and commentators. Each scene is titled with the person's name and a key phrase from that interview. There are a total of 29 monologues in Fires in the Mirror and each one focuses on a character's opinion and point of view of the events and issues surrounding the crisis. Most characters have one monologue; the Reverend Al Sharpton, Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Norman Rosenbaum have two monologues each.
Fires in the Mirror is divided into themed sections. The themes include elements of personal identity, differences in physical appearance, differences in race, and the feelings toward the riot incidents. The overall arc of the play flows from broad personal identity issues, to physical identity, to issues of race and ethnicity, and finally ending in issues relating to the Crown Heights riot.[2]
The play is structured as follows:
- Identity
- The Desert – Ntozake Shange discusses Identity in terms of the self fitting into the community as a whole and the feeling of being separate from others but still somewhat a part of the whole.
- Static – An anonymous Lubavitcher woman tells a humorous story of getting a young black boy from the neighborhood to turn off their radio during the Sabbath because no one in their family was allowed to.
- 101 Dalmatians – George C. Wolfe talks about racial identity and argues that "blackness" is extremely different from "whiteness"
- Mirrors
- Mirrors and Distortions – Aaron M. Bernstein intellectually theorizes how mirrors can distort images both scientifically and in literature.
- Hair
- Look in the Mirror – An anonymous girl talks about how racial identity is extremely important in her school and the girls act, dress, and wear their hair according to the racial groups.
- Me and James's Thing – Al Sharpton explains that he promised James Brown he would always wear his hair straightened and that it was not due to anything racial.
- Wigs – Rivkah Siegal discusses the difficulty behind the custom of wearing wigs. She focuses on how she feels like she is not herself and that she is fake.
- Race
- Rope – Angela Davis talks about the changes in history of Blacks and Whites and then continuing need to find ways to come together as people.
- Rhythm
- Rhythm and Poetry – Rapper Monique Matthews discusses the perception of rap and the attitude toward women in the hip-hop culture. She explains the need for women in that culture to be more confident and not accept being viewed as sexual objects.
- Seven Verses
- Roots – Leonard Jeffries describes his involvement in Roots, a television series about African-American family histories and the slave trade.
- Near Enough to Reach – Letty Cottin Pogrebin says that blacks attack Jews because Jews are the only ones that listen to them and do not simply ignore their attacks.
- Seven Verses – Minister Conrad Mohammed theorizes and explains that blacks are God's "chosen people", and expresses his views on the suffering of blacks at the hands of white people.
- Isaac – Pogrebin talks about her uncle Isaac, a Holocaust survivor, who was forced by the Nazis to load his wife and children onto a train headed for the gas chambers.
- Lousy Language – Robert Sherman explains that words like "bias" and "discrimination" are not specific enough, leading to poor communication.
- Crown Heights, Brooklyn, August 1991
- No Blood in His Feet – Rabbi Joseph Spielman describes the riot events; he believes that blacks lied about the events surrounding the death of the boy Cato in order to start anti-Semitic riots. He focuses on the malicious intent of the black kids who stabbed Rosenbaum.
- Mexican Standoff – The Reverend Canon Doctor Heron Sam says that he feels the Jewish community was unconcerned with the killing of Cato.
- Wa Wa Wa – Anonymous Young Man #1 explains his view on the differences of police contact with the Jewish and Black communities, and how he thinks there is no justice for blacks as Jews are never arrested.
- "Heil Hitler" – Michael S. Miller argues that the black community is extremely anti-Semitic.
- Knew How to Use Certain Words – Henry Rice describes his personal involvement in the events and the injustice he suffered.
- My Brother's Blood – Norman Rosenbaum speaks at a rally about wanting justice for his brother's murder, and says that he doesn't believe the police are doing all that they can.
- Sixteen Hours Difference – Norman Rosenbaum talks about first hearing the news of his brother's death.
- Bad Boy – Anonymous Young Man #2 explains that the black kid who was blamed for Rosenbaum's murder was an athlete and therefore would not have killed anyone
- Chords – Sonny Carson describes his personal contributions in the black community, and how he is trying to teach blacks to act against the white power structure.
- Ovens – Rabbi Shea Hecht does not believe integration is the solution to the problems of race relations.
- Rain – Al Sharpton talks about trying to sue the driver who hit Gavin Cato, and complains about bias in the judicial system and the media.
- Rage – Richard Green says that there are no role models for black youths, leading to rage among them.
- The Coup – Roslyn Malamud blames the police and black leaders for letting the events and crisis get out of control.
- Pogroms – Reuven Ostrov describes how Jews got scared because there are "Jew-haters" everywhere.
- Lingering – Carmel Cato closes the play by describing the trauma of seeing his son die, and his resentment toward powerful Jews.
