Suzan-Lori Parks’ The America Play is a tale that follows the life of an average man, whom is the main character in the play. The average man defines himself as The Foundling Father through his likeness to the great man: Abraham Lincoln. The only difference that exists between the appearance of The Foundling Father and Abraham Lincoln is their race. The Foundling Father is an average black man; a black man that is infatuated in replicating the assassination of the former president. The play is set in a big hole, intentionally spelt without a “w.” The symbolism behind this setting is left open for the audiences’ interpretation. Whether the hole is symbolic to the great hole in history, or the loss of Abraham Lincoln, or even symbolic to the fact that history is always misinterpreted, therefore information about the past is not documented accurately. Do not allow these few suggestions of what the hole symbolizes to narrow your mind. Open your thoughts to interpretation, and let the hole be symbolic of what you may identify with in watching The America Play. Suzan-Lori Parks writes her play musically, there is rhythm to the words. Parks wants to step outside of the average playwright norms and let the audience experience something creative and innovative, and she does just that with this play. Parks also achieves in incorporating elements of satire in the way she wrote the play. She has footnotes at the bottoms of the pages in the play in order to explain the madness occurring on the page amongst the characters. In studying the production of The America Play it is credible to say that tonight’s performance will take you on an interpretive journey through a profound moment in history that does Parks’ creative, innovative and satirized play justice.
LANGUAGE OF THE PLAY:
ReplyDeleteSuzan-Lori Parks’ The America Play obtains within it its own unique style of language. Parks seems to write her play musically; the spells within the play serve as thoughtful moments. These spells represent emotional transitions, and they add to the beauty of the language within the play. Parks utilized her essay Elements of Style as a sort of preface in order to explain the structure, content, and language of her play.
Suzan-Lori Parks is not only poetic in her writings but she also is informal in a playful way. Parks takes it upon herself to step outside of playwriting norms and to poke fun at the formal and serious styles of playwriting. An example of how Parks executes her playful and informal style of language is in the footnotes that she provides numerous times on the bottom of the pages within the play. For example, Parks pokes fun at how historical information can be misconstrued, like the concept of the telephone game, “ ‘Emergency oh, Emergency, please put the Great Man in the ground” (Parks, 160). Parks has the number four marking this supposed quotation and the footnote at the bottom states, “Possibly the words of Mary Todd Lincoln after the death of her husband” (Parks, 160). What Parks is trying to accomplish with this informal footnote is to add to the playfulness of her writings as well as emphasize on the satire style of the language in The America Play.
Not only is Suzan-Lori Parks’ style of language poetic and playful, there is also much depth to the dialogue in her play. Parks’ The America Play is filled with imagery. Take the opening of the play for instance, where the play is set. It’s set in “A great hole. In the middle of nowhere. The hole is an exact replica of the Great Hole of History” (Parks, 159). One take on that symbolism could be that Parks is suggesting at the top of the play that history is a giant hole of lost information, the details surrounding historical events are misconstrued and misinterpreted. Therefore, historical information is lost. Parks uses her character Lucy in order to convey this symbolic style of language in The America Play, “Whispers don’t always come up right away. Takes time sometimes. Whispers could travel different out West then they do back East. Whispers are secrets and often shy” (Parks, 178). In this quote the idea of history losing its truth, or validity, is portrayed in the scene between Lucy and Brazil. Parks’ The America Play takes place in a giant hole, to what that hole represents is left up to the audience to decipher, and that is what plays into the imagery in the language of the play.
Overall, Suzan-Lori Parks’ The America Play is a beautiful piece of writing filled with poetry, satire, and imagery. Her outside-of-the-box style of language is what makes this play so profound and unique. Her usage of spells and exploration of symbolism is what makes this play creative and innovative. Parks adds even more flavor to her play with the dialogue itself, requiring the actors that are cast to use certain slang and dialects of speech. Ultimately, The America Play is an ingenious work of art filled with many intriguing elements, depths, and styles of language that pulls the audience, or the reader, in.
To be honest I did not necessarily enjoy this play so I think I would avoid choosing monologue material from here. Also I dont think it would make sense to try to derive monologue material from this play because of the creative structure of the language within the play.
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