Who is Rheba in the play, You Can’t Take It with You?

Rheba is the Sycamore family's efficient, practical, and adaptable "colored maid." The stage directions introduce her in stereotypically racist terms "a very black girl somewhere in her thirties" common during the years preceding the Civil Rights movement. During the course of the play's action, however, Rheba emerges as a distinct individual, speaking her mind and holding her own within the eccentric household.