The America Play

The America Play is a literary piece written by Suzan-Lori Park about a humble American, whose very close resemblance with Abraham Lincoln creates an opportunity to earn a living impersonating the great man in theatres (Schmidt, 2005). His likeness to the president leads him to leaving his natural job of being a gravedigger. This allows archaeologists to reenact the assassination and the history of Lincoln. In the play, the average man Harold Surratt portrays the final moments of Abraham Lincoln leading to his assassination. In comparing Surratt with Lincoln, Park writes “the hole is a replica of the great Hole of history. Surratt’s customers place a penny into a container with a shape that resembles the famous bust of Lincoln. The audience approaches the “stage where he sits in a rocking chair, laughing and waiting for the sound of the gun” (Ibid). When the shot goes, he slumps over and waits until the customer leaves. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln occurred while he was watching a play, apparently laughing when he was shot. Customers’ interest is in the historical aspects of the assassination, with special attention to the replica of the gun used by John Wilkes Booth used in the assassination.

Suzan-Lori Park wrote the America Play with the purpose of redefining the identity of the American society in the face of racial divide. Park’s work is a reconstruction of the American identity. It seeks to create a social balance between the racial groups, blacks and whites. She uses an African American look-alike of Abraham Lincoln to demystify the sociopolitical ideology of white supremacy and history dominated by biased interpretations. The playwright uses the postmodernist perspective that history is subject to interpretation using modern perspectives. In seeking to deconstruct past situations, Park disturbs the bias in society and lays foundation for redefinition of social values and identity issues.

The play uses creativity drawing a comparison by painting likeness and pointing to the difference at the same time. For instance, the writer asserts “While the Great Man’s livelihood kept him in Big Town the less known’s work kept him in a small town. Surratt’s love for his new found role leads him to depart his family, in order to follow in the footsteps Abraham Lincoln. Parks work is exemplary. He uses an insignificant grave digger to represent a great leader. In the second act of the play, Surratt meets with his son, Brazil (Darius Truly), and wife Lucy (J. Nicole Brooks). Brazil digs for artifacts left behind by his father. The play portrays America that is familiar yet alien. Keystone directs with emotional sensitivity drawing the audience to the world. The “great hole” is symbolic to our comprehension of the world; we have diverse and strange ideas because of movies and texts that we experience. Perhaps, it is the reason why the director, Park, enigmatically set the America Play in a great hole.

Knowledge and interpretation of history is better today than in times before multiculturalism was popular in education. Surratt’s impersonation of Lincoln generates pride and gravity, making his abandonment of his family acceptable. Surratt’s wife embodies faith and strength that surpasses bitterness and holds to the positive, in the present. She gives Brazil a sense of the wonder of a boy with a hidden history attempting to discover his father and heritage. The play portrays an abstract landscape of America’s history, which according to play is not everyone’s history. However, it is real enough to be someone’s history. It is only through the slices of history in the America Play that one can find the true mainstream versions of history to something like reality. Park seeks to redefine history by creating a new perspective of historical interpretations. She uses a black Lincoln look-a-like to challenge the traditional subjectivity and white dominance of American historiography. She reworks historical events that only received a thorough documentation and interpretation from the perspectives of the white people. In doing so, she challenges the validity of the historiography and goes ahead to destabilize and deconstruct its content.

The America Play is a complex play about history that has several layers, but without a clear plot movement making it hard to follow. As one part begins to make sense, a slightly altered version of the part of the story generates confusion about what is going on. It lacks linearity and logic, and readers try to track down the meaning of the work that seems to be chasing its own meaning. Suzan-Lori Parks defines history through complexity, instability, and multi-layer organization of meaning. Her view of postmodernism that history is the modern interpretation of past events through a multiplicity of perspectives offers a re-reading of history. The play redefines both the white and black ideas about American history. The play challenges the white-defined American history by replacing the white-defined Lincoln with a black look-alike. The play is an essential part of American history and the deconstruction of the American identity. The play is provocative and frustrating in equal measure. It is an exceptional piece for the theatres.

Park succeeds in screening the society and causing a reevaluation of society’s identity. She challenges the social fabric characterized by inequality and social bias. By saying “the hole is an exact replica of the Great Hole of History”, he compares the insignificant Harold Surratt to the Great Lincoln and dispelling the myth of incomparability of the two groups from the American social divide. However, the playwright takes the technique of complexity and multilayer approach to literature. The reader is lost in the many complex interpretations and the several layers of idea development. This is a point that weakens a great piece of literature; otherwise the story makes the play a creative masterpiece that does not only entertain, but carries along the message of social integration.

The play dares historical stereotyping by asking the real questions of human identity. The play has strong language that propels the audience to the light of knowledge. It portrays the history as something personal that demands to be shared. Park realizes the richness of history and demands that history tells the truth. She revisits it and draws exceptional lessons from it that can help transform the society. The concept that Suzan-Lori Park bases her work on is postmodernism. She portrays the history in the eye of a modern sociologist or historian. It is a fascinating piece for the theatre that leaves a transformative effect on the readers and those who experience it in the theatres.

Reference

Schmidt, K. “The theatre of Transformation: Postmodernism in American Drama”. New York, NY: Rodopi, 2005.

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