Used to be I didn’t have any sense of an American identity, let along my own American identity. Used to be that I wouldn’t know what that meant. When John Steinbeck was writing the book that inspired this play, he wrote down in his journal that it had a chance of becoming a “truly American book.” I tend to agree. Performed at the Ethel Barber Theatre in 2015. And the music of the banjo and fiddle permeated through the smoky, sticky, moss-covered woods that make up the Blue Ridge Mountains. God was praised and proven through the venomous serpents their holy men handled. The battles that the war began continued in the streets. Cocooned in Appalachia, away from government and law, these families turned primal. The generation that fought passed along their boiling blood to their children and loyalty shifted from country to family. The post-war confusion created a tinderbox of hate-the continuance of their parents’ rage. In the southern states in the late 1800’s just below the Mason Dixon line, the blood of the North and South mixed together in the soil of family farms. Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.Īnd then, the war was over. It created wounds that still break open today. The battles were gruesome, intimate affairs of savagery. Think of a time where brother fought against brother and neighbor fought against neighbor. Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. Instead think of America, who’s bloody, war torn history is as old as its age. Toss out the romanticized Zeffirelli, the electrified Luhrmann, and any other personal experiences you may have had with this play.
As best you can, forget everything you know about Romeo and Juliet.
2018 finally saw its full production on the AMC Show Truck (mobile stage) in the heart of downtown Asheville at the lot at 68 Haywood Street In 2016, it was workshopped in Chicago under the banner of the American Myth Center with original music by Elizabeth Bagby. It was subsequently work-shopped at Oregon Shakespeare Festival under the banner of the OSF Midnight Project with the dramaturgical help of Isabel Smith-Bernstein. This script was originally developed at Northwestern University.
0 kommentar(er)
