 SPUNK
A play with songs by George C. Wolfe: Music by Chic Streetman; Adapted
for the stage from three short stories by Zora Neale Hurston
Originally developed at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and was
first presented in New York as a co-production of the New York Shakespeare
Festival and Crossroads Theater Company.
Using the blues, choral narrative and dance, the three tales focus on
men and women, trapped inside the "laughin' kind of lovin' kind
of hurtin' kind of pain, that comes from being human.
The following is an excerpt from an on-line study guide. For further
information click
here
Although there is a third person narrator who tells the story, the actions
of the main characters in "Spunk" are interpreted mostly by
the men who stand around commenting on what they see as they lounge about
their village's one store. The narrator is detached, uninvolved in the
action, but the men who speak have opinions about everything.
As the story opens, a man and a woman walk arm-in-arm down the street
of the village and into the brush. As the men watch the couple walk away,
their gossiping makes it clear that the man is Spunk Banks, a "giant
of a brown-skinned man" who is known in town and at the saw-mill
for his bravery. The identity of the woman is not revealed until a small
nervous man enters the store, and Elijah, one of the other men, begins
to tease him. He is Joe Kanty, and the woman on Spunk's arm is Joe's
wife, Lena. Shamed by Elijah's mockery, Joe takes out a razor and announces
that he is going to confront Spunk and get his wife back. He leaves the
store in pursuit ..... |
