Los Angeles Theatre Review: 'An Octoroon' - The Nerds of Color Through Brechtian elements such as direct address, Jacobs-Jenkins explores "the idea that you could feel something and then be aware that youre feeling it". Dora runs off crying, saying: I hate you both (52). The Octoroon (1913) Plot Showing all 3 items Jump to: Summaries (2) Synopsis (1) Summaries In the period before the Civil War, a young man returns to his hometown of New Orleans after having been gone for a long time. Log in here. Upon learning of Pauls murder, they immediately believe Wahnotee did it and vow to lynch him (48) if he is found. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story Is Our TV Pick Of The Week, Small Town Horror Story: The Racist Attack Of A FedEx Worker. Bachelor. An Octoroon Austin Smith being dragged in this comedy by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn. The show was directed by Peter Hinton and designed by Gillian Gallow. Zoe enters along with Mr. Sunnyside, a plantation owner, and his Southern belle daughter, Dora, who tells Zoe she is in love with George. [1] He has, evidently, sunk quite a bit of money into his inventions, and they have all been giant failures. The Greek Slave depicted a white woman, however, not a person of mixed race. Perhaps not surprisingly, such informal mixed-race unions in the slave states occurred fairly often, making Zoes situation seem not so unusual after all. At the time of its presentation at the annual exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1868, Bell stood at the height of his career. Already a member? [13] The cast featured Chris Myers as BJJ, in triple roles: the black playwright, George Peyton and M'Closky; Danny Wolohan as Dion Boucicault, Zo Winters as Dora, and Amber Gray as Zoe. The Octoroon (Play) Plot & Characters | StageAgent A plate from George's camera is presented, showing both Paul sitting, and MClosky murdering him is presented and proves M'Closky's guilt. This much-celebrated work by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins toys with the machinery of melodrama, a form that relies on the elaborate sets and over-the-top spectacle of the illusionist stage. His battles with the church arent over, How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! Mrs. Peyton instead tells Paul to go fetch the mailbags because she is waiting for an important letter from Liverpool. He plans to buy her and make her his mistress. The most famous one is her first novel, Lady Audley's Secret 1862 , which won her recognition and fortune as well. McClosky desires Zoe for himself, and when she rejects his proposition, he plots to have her sold with the rest of the slaves, for he knows that she is an octoroon and is legally part of the Terrebonne property. The play was adapted by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins as An Octoroon in 2014. The incongruous mix of modern idiom and antebellum narrative fuels the wit of Jacobs-Jenkins project. The drama tells the moving story of Zoe, the mixed-race daughter of a rich Southern judge and plantation owner by his black paramour. Mr. Peyton believed that he had freed his daughter, Zoe, but because he had already incurred a lien on the property, she wasnt his property to free. Dissatisfied with ongoing Methodist support for slavery, on November 1st of 1861 Mattison formally withdrew from the church and became a pastor of St. John's independent Methodist church. Given its 19th century Southern setting, the play is also filled with numerous examples of racial discrimination beyond the institution of slavery, even by the plays more sympathetic characters. Dido protests, but Zoe steals the liquid and runs away. This is the origin story of the play were watching, but BJJ is an unreliable narrator. In art and literature, these figures were almost exclusively female. Picquet solicited for donations to reach the one thousand dollar price, and in her travels asking for donations, she made it all the way to New York City where she met the Reverend Hiram Mattison. The last date is today's Back at Terrebonne, Zoe returns but with a sad heart, as she knows that she and George can never be together. It contains elements of Romanticism and melodrama. How natural it felt to be back, sitting among colleagues, acquaintances and strangers at a press performance for a show! Mary Elizabeth Braddon (4 October 1835 - 4 February 1915) was an English popular novelist of the Victorian era. In 1858, Picquet discovered that her mother was still alive and began corresponding with her and with Horton in regards to buying her Ramsey's freedom. ZOE is declared a slave as well and is put up for sale. The Octoroon Summary and Analysis (like SparkNotes) - Free Book Notes She is the so-called illegitimate (not produced by marriage) daughter of a plantation owner named Mr. Peyton and one of his slaves on this. The Dissonance of An Octoroon | HowlRound Theatre Commons A stereo photograph of the original allowed even those of modest means to view it with a convincing illusion of depth. Tragic mulatto - Wikipedia At the Plantation Terrebonne in Louisiana, Dido and Minnie chat about the arrival of George, and the passing of his uncle, their previous master. [19], Dobama Theater in Cleveland Heights, Ohio presented An Octoroon from October 21, 2016 to November 13, 2016, directed by Nathan Motta[20], The first West Coast premiere of An Octoroon was held at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, directed by Eric Ting with Sydney Morton in the title role. Where larger, better funded theaters in Los Angeles have played it safe, the Fountain has made room for bold, boundary-breaking drama. After they leave, MClosky reveals he actually hates the Peytons and vows to sweep [them] from this section of the country (33). Maude Adams-The Octoroon Print fond memoriesThis pocket Bluetooth printer lets you print your precious memories before they hit Instagram. eNotes Editorial. Hiram Mattison, New York: N. Tibbals and Son, 1870. The Octoroon takes place on the Terrebonne plantation in Louisiana, which is home to Mrs. Peyton, the widow of a judge. But how a work is produced matters too, and An Octoroon requires directorial sensibility and skill that arent always in evidence in Judith Morelands production. There are also the two Sunnysides: Mr. Sunnyside and his daughter, Dora. George doesnt know at first that Zoe is an octoroon, meaning shes 1/8th Black, but he refuses to let miscegenation law stand in the way of his hearts desire. The group tells Wahnotee of MCloskys guilt and go to capture MClosky, calling for his death, when MClosky escapes, lighting the shed and ship on fire as he does. An Octoroon, the play that drew us together, is a tricky work to pull off under optimal conditions, and I worried how this postmodern riff on Dion Boucicaults musty The Octoroon would fare under the moonlight, amid the blare of car mufflers and police helicopters. The production ran from January 29 to February 27, 2016. Minnies hilarious advice to Dido: I know we slaves and evurthang, but you are not your job captures both the madness of slavery and the stupefying cruelty. George, upon arriving at the plantation from Europe, begins to fall in love with her. The buyers gather to take away the slaves they have purchased on a steamship. Mary Elizabeth Braddon by William Powell Frith, 1865. If there is a The Octoroon SparkNotes, Shmoop guide, or Cliff Notes, you can find a link to each study guide below. Return to North American Slave Narratives Home Page, Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life, Speaking Lives, Authoring Texts: Three African American Women's Oral Slave Narratives, Work Here, Rest Hereafter: Or, The Life and Character of Rev. To all appearances, the young woman seen here represents a white captive. What ensues is an upside down, topsy-turvy world where race and morality are challenged and intensified. His work typically mixed the conventional standards of classical form with the emotive pathos of contemporary romanticism. New York, NY, Escape To Margaritaville Just as McClosky points out the blood on Wahnotee's tomahawk, the oldest slave, Pete, comes to give them the photographic plate which has captured McClosky's deed. Spectacle and Sensation in The Octoroon/An Octoroon . Rather than execute this, the actors explain and act out what happens. New York, NY, Accessibility Statement Terms Privacy |StageAgent 2020. His design for the narrative was moralistic and therefore he focuses many of his questions on Picquet's identity as a sexual victim and concubine. Though he wanted her to run off and escape with him, she was too afraid of getting caught so he left without her. Set in the pre-Civil War South, The Octoroon deals heavily with racial themes. Set on the fictional Terrebonne Plantation in Louisiana, The Octoroon depicts life in the American South with honesty and empathy. Here, Picquet was hired out by Cook as a nurse and domestic help to a Mr. "Bachelor" whose wife ran the boarding house where Cook stayed. BJJ stops the action of the play. Wahnotee, accused by the members of Captain Ratts ship of killing Paul, is about to be lynched. Despite her deep concern for Ramsey's welfare, she found happiness in her marriage to Henry Picquet, a mulatto. Jacob M'Closky, another northerner who has taken over as a planter, has used underhanded measures to acquire half of the land on the estate, and he seems likely to purchase the rest of it. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. In 1835, the year after his conversion, he was a junior preacher in Oswego County, New York after serving as an agent of the American Bible Society in New Jersey. The position of the octoroon along the edge of this fragile divide afforded some degree of maneuverability, often termed passing. Before the abolition of slavery, however, such light-skinned mulattoes faced the even more likely prospect of a life in bondage. The use of essentially the same body for both women only heightens the sense of irony for the situation of the octoroon, so close is she to normative whiteness. Picquet was born into a lineage of sexual victimization and strong maternal dedication. The second is the date of A full body orgasm at the L.A. Phil? Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Scudder tells them that all could be saved if George marries Dora, but says he knows that Zoe and George are in love. The word Octoroon signifies "one-eighth blood" or the child of a Quadroon by a white. The evil McClosky desires her for himself, opposed by the sincere love for her by George, the heir to the family fortune. Word Count: 465. [10] Vallejo Gantner, artistic director of PS 122 along with theatre critics Elisabeth Vincentelli and Adam Feldman, argued that although it was not unethical to publish the email, it may not have been "nice" to publish it. In an act of desperation she drinks a vial of poison, and Scudder enters to deliver the good news that McClosky was proven guilty of murdering Paul and that Terrebonne now belongs to George. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Coming to an L.A. stage: Proof were in a golden age of American playwriting, Michael Ritchie will retire from Center Theatre Group and make space for a new voice, Hollywood writers strike over streaming pay after talks fail, Models and climate activists hit the streets to protest the star-studded 2023 Met Gala, Gordon Lightfoot, mournful Canadian singer-songwriter, dies at 84, Tim Bachman, founding guitarist of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, dies at 71. The stage provided the inspiration for Bells subject. George says he can overcome the obstacle (43), but Zoe protests that they cannot be together. Chapter-by-chapter summaries and multiple sections of expert analysis, The ultimate resource for assignments, engaging lessons, and lively book discussions. The narrative goes on to recount an exchange of letters between Picquet, her mother, and Ramsey's slave owner in Texas. Lead. He almost proposes to Dora to get her fortune and save Terrebonne, but he cannot bring himself to lie. 683 Words; 3 Pages; Open Document. The title refers to a person who is one-eighth black. This role is. MClosky, who everyone agrees is awful, falls in love with her, as does George, and Scudder is already in love with her. What is the genre of the octoroon. The Octoroon Summary 2022-10-22 Summary of Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of Southern Salem Scudder, a northerner who has been serving as the plantation's overseer, bears some responsibility for the poor state of affairs at Terrebonne. "The Octoroon" tells the late of when In the deep south of 1850's USA, an octoroon is given her freedom by her white father but is later bought as a slave by the evil Jacob McCloskey. Present in An Octoroon is the illusion of suffering and actual suffering. Mrs. Peyton, for instance, refers to her slaves black ungainly faces (32) even as she extols her love for them, while Scudder speaks directly of the protection, forbearance, gentleness and other goods that show the critters the difference between the Christian and the savage (72). When Dora finds out, she is very angry at them and asks her father to buy the plantation, which he does. BJJ, Playwright, and Assistant explain the significance of the fourth act, the sensation scene in melodrama. Tragic mulatta. Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street. Bells own distilled response to the theme of miscegenation in the play seems to have evolved rather quickly. When the play was performed in England it was given a happy ending, in which the mixed-race couple are united. George reveals his love to Zoe, who loves him too, and the fact that she is the daughter of a slave does not deter. After some time, they had two more children named Sarah and Thomas. eNotes.com Post a Comment - The Journal of American Drama and Theatre (JADT) A spectacular collision of the antebellum South and 21st-century cultural politics, An Octoroon twists a funhouse world of larger-than-life stereotypes into blistering social . Being considered one-eighth black, she is called an "octoroon." MClosky then enters and informs the group of Zoes free papers and that she is still a slave. "The Octoroon" tells the late of when In the deep south of 1850's USA, an octoroon is given her freedom by her white father but is later bought as a . The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. She was born to a slave, but her father, Randolph, was a free man and her master. Mrs. Peyton compels George to propose to Dora anyway, but as he begins to do so, he confesses to her that hes in love with Zoe instead. I know Moreland primarily as a superb actor she was faultlessly good in Robert Schenkkans Building the Wall at the Fountain and by reputation as a respected acting teacher at UCLA. He hoped to use Picquet's experiences to prove the moral corruption of slavery at the General Conference of the Methodist Church in Buffalo. An Octoroon is set way down yonder in the land of cotton during the antebellum period. Mattison glosses over this violence, stating that "it is too horrible and indelicate to be read in a civilized country" (p. 15). During this time, she was "accused of being an imposter" and fraud because of her skin color (p. 43) On one particular occasion, some of the gentlemen Picquet inquired upon for donations sternly asked her, "You are a colored women? The Octoroon who is hiding in some bushes nearby, sacrifices her chances of freedom by leaping into the water and rescuing the young girl. The Octoroon; or, Life in Louisiana by Dion Boucicault premiered in New York City on December 6, 1859. The story overtly concerns racial identification, making it clear that even a small amount of African American blood would taint a person at that time, making them unable to marry a white person and, depending on their mother (whose status determined whether or not their children are slaves), potentially born into slavery. The audience is catapulted into a space that plays to their stereotypes and questions our societys relationship to humanity and our history. (Check schedule for exceptions.) The young Frenchman when he meets Eveline falls madly in love with her in spite of the fact that . The most overt of this is Zoes status as an Octoroon, a person who is one-eighth black. 1 May 2023 . An Octoroon is a radical, incendiary and subversively funny riff on Dion Boucicault's once-popular 1859 mustache-twirling melodrama set on a Louisiana plantation. The last date is today's Williams made Picquet his concubine and she bore him four children, but only two survived enslavement. [22], From May 18 to July 1, 2017 An Octoroon was performed at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London[23] in a production directed by Ned Bennett and designed by Georgia Lowe. This guide details the original Boucicault script and associated productions. Minnie comforts Dido and they look forward to their new lives on Captain Ratts boat. Zoe is then put up for sale during the slave auction, and despite bids from George, Mr. Sunnyside, and Doraand George pulling a knifeMClosky buys her for $25,000. He doesnt want audience members to feel too secure in what theyre seeing. Dora falls in love with George, but George loves Zoe. BJJ clarifies that in the time of the play, a photograph was a novel/innovative/contemporary way for the plot to be resolved. BJJ is focused on a play, The Octoroon, but runs into issues staging it because the white actors quit, so he applies whiteface in order to play them himself. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Ed. MClosky then breaks some tragic news: The bank is foreclosing on their mortgage and Terrebonne is up for sale. Paul and Wahnotee arrive back with the mailbags and play around with the camera. The Octoroon (PDF) He received his doctorate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from the Yale School of Drama. I envy not the proud old Florentine The classic beauties of his Italy; Give me but here to have my glory dream, 'Mid fragrant woods and fieldsby lake and stream. They discover a photographic plate showing MClosky standing over Pauls body and realize he is the murderer instead. The term octoroon is thankfully not in circulation anymore, and it is likely that the melodrama would have remained in historys dustbin were it not for Jacobs-Jenkins ambivalent curiosity. Already a member? [3] As such, among many other things, it provides a dramatization of and peek at the plantation pecking order in . At Williams's death, in 1847, Picquet and her children were emancipated, but she had no way to leave the city, so Picquet moved in with Helen Hopkins, a black friend; by selling some of Williams' furniture, Picquet eventually acquired enough money to leave the South and got as far as Cincinnati, Ohio. 13 According to the formulaic plot that defined the octoroon genre, the enslaved mixed-race beauty was understood to be the product of a sexual relationship between a white male slaveholder and an enslaved woman of African descent. The group also discusses Zoe, who lives at the estate and is the judges illegitimate child, although Mrs. Peyton loves [her] as if shed been her own child (26). The term sensation drama caught on when Boucicault's The Colleen Bawn, adapted from Gerald Griffin's novel The Collegians, became a hit in 1860. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. The Writer, an African American, stepped into the drama playing the roles of both its male white protagonist and antagonist. Hiram Mattison, Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon: or Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life. He soon meets and falls in love with an "octoroon", a young woman who is one-eighth black. The Octoroon (Play) Monologues | StageAgent He has no children with his wife, but he has one daughter, a young woman named Zoe, who is one-eighth blackthe octoroon of the plays titleand who he fathered with a slave (who must have been a quadroon, a person with one-quarter black heritage). Summary of The Octoroon. Though it would hardly seem likely at first glance, this pallid image of slavery directly addresses the condition of black bondage. British audiences disliked this unhappy ending, and the play was rewritten with the more optimistic happily ever after possibility of their union in another, more tolerant land. However, we have dozens of other monologues that you can read. Scudder and Pete enter to tell the group of MCloskys guilt when MClosky enters and is quickly rushed on by Wahnotee. Minnie and Dido realize all the other slaves ran away. An Octoroon review - blackface meets whiteface in quicksilver drama Also, he emphasizes that the defining point of this "whole narrative is the deep moral corruption which it reveals in the families concerned, resulting from the institution of slavery" (p. 50). [25], Artists Repertory Theatre, located in Portland, Oregon, was to stage An Octoroon from September 3 to October 1, 2017. An Octoroon is a play written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Hancock, who has the toughest challenge of playing both hero and villain, occasionally seems underpowered. She, however, gets her father to buy the plantation in order to save it, George, and Zoe, but Zoe is sold off separately to MClosky after a huge bidding war between him and the Sunnysides. [2] Among antebellum melodramas, it was considered second in popularity only to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852).[3]. eNotes.com, Inc. Picquet described it at as a moment that "seems fresh in my memory when I think of it - no longer than yesterday - my mother was right on her knees, prayin' to the Lord for me" (p. 18). Extremely popular, the play was kept running continuously for years by seven road companies. To that end, every now and again an actor dressed as a rabbit makes a surreal cameo. BJJ, trying to wrest himself from a depressive funk, had wanted to investigate what still speaks to him in Boucicaults drama. Another man called MClosky went through the courts and away went a thousand acres of Terrebonne to him. George and Zoe reveal their love for each other, but Zoe rejects George's marriage proposal. One of the plantations overseers, Scudder, enters and informs them that the estate is in a darned bad condition (25), and has been mortgaged to a Yankee, Jacob McCloskey (MClosky), who now owns one-half of the estates land. Ed. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. But he hits full-throttle in the violent confrontation between George and MClosky, a fight scene in which Hancock has to wrestle himself. The Octoroon (Play) Scenes | StageAgent Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. "The Octoroon - Summary" eNotes Publishing [24], The Canadian premiere of An Octoroon was produced by The Shaw Festival for its 2017 season. The second date is today's Mature Adult. He produced a huge number of plays of which the exact number is between 135 and 400 titles (Kosok,82). Enfolded in the mortgage melodrama of a Louisiana plantation is a love story involving George, the young romantic heir of the estate, and the illegitimate daughter of the dead patriarch, Zoe, who was raised at Terrebonne as part of the family. Their family included Henry's four year old daughter, Harriet, and Louisa's eight year old daughter, Eliza. In fact, the subject seems to have been suggested to Bell by the arrival on the London stage in 1861 of The Octoroon, a highly popular play first produced in New York two years earlier by the widely celebrated playwright Dion Boucicault. Zoe from The Octoroon Summary & Breakdown | StageAgent Besides race, what are some representations of slaves and slavery that are not complicity with the dominant ideology of this time? Learning that the owner would free Ramsey for one thousand dollars, "she resolved to make the attempt at all hazards," which included "saving every penny she could" and "soliciting money" abroad (p. 36). [17], Company One Theatre in Boston co-produced the play with ArtsEmerson, directed by Summer L. Williams. The Octoroon: A Tragic Mulatto Enslaved by 1 Drop - The Root After sparring with Scudder over their role in the Peytons downfall and offering Zoe the chance to be the mistress of her own plantation (she refuses), MClosky goes through the judges desk and finds Zoes free papers, realizing that due to the judges debts, Zoe, an Octoroon, is still a slave. Last Updated on June 19, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. Indeed, seeing a show alfresco at the Fountain is in many ways a more relaxing experience than seeing one in the theaters cramped indoor space. But neither the absurdity nor the horror will disappear by closing our eyes. Zoe reciprocates his feelings but says that they cannot be together, as she is an Octoroon and interracial marriage is illegal. This page is not available in other languages. In Mobile, Picquet describes her love interest with a "colored man more white than [she was]" (p. Since this letter would allow Mrs. Peyton to avoid selling Terrebonne, McClosky kills Paul and takes the letter. eNotes Editorial. New York: The Author, 1861. Narrative context is dispensed with to focus on the essential plight of the victim, a process often leavening compassion with a less chaste voyeurism. This is no easy task, and the cast has mixed results. Quadroon - Wikipedia Zoe tells George: Of the blood that feeds my heart, one drop in eight is blackbright red as the rest may be, that one drop poisons all the blood (43). An Octoroon - Wikipedia The play starts with the director telling the audience, in a hilarious way, what inspired him to . Part of his agenda in helping Picquet was to gain support for the abolitionist and temperance movement. He accompanied her until she was successful in raising nine hundred dollars and bought her mother's freedom. He and Zoe admit to their love of each other; a heartbroken Dora leaves. Key Information Character Solon Show The Octoroon Gender Male Age Range Adult, Mature Adult Role Size Ensemble Time & Place mid 1800's, louisiana, plantation terrebonne, mississippi river Tags african-american slave server cook good-natured loyal ensemble southern creole accent Analysis African-American, Southern Creole Accent. In May 1860, Mattison met with Picquet to help her raise money to free her mother from bondage. MClosky vows to own that Octoroon (37) and get the mailbag before Paul and Wahnotee, so that he may steal the letter and prevent the Peytons from saving their estate. This character allowed abolitionists to draw attention to the sexual . Zoe calls Dido Mammy, and she puts on a mammy character as they argue.