Show and Tell Post #1 - The Death of the Last Black Man In the Whole Entire World

     The play I chose for my first show and tell post is Suzan-Lori Parks' The Death of the Last Black Man In the Whole Entire World. It was written in 1990 and was originally produced at the Brooklyn Arts Council's BACA Downtown Theatre (Salem Press). Although popular amongst critics and scholars, Black Man has seen a very small amount of staged performances due to "defying traditional notions of plot, character, and structure, the work calls for a sizable cast of 11 actors, all of them black, and a facility on the part of the entire team to make sense of lines like 'do in dip diddly did-did'" (Chloe Veltman, 2013 San Francisco Fringe Festival). I found this play in Parks' anthology The America Play and Other Works. 

     The play opens with an overture, followed by five "panels", and closes with a final chorus. The central character in the play, called Black Man with Watermelon (BMWW), dies over and over again, each way representing a different way black people have died in the past. In the overture we are introduced to the chorus, including the characters Black Woman with Fried Drumstick, Lots of Grease and Lots of Pork, Yes and Greens Black-Eyed Peas Cornbread, and Queen-Then-Pharaoh Hatshepsut, among other characters who all represent definitive black stereotypes. In the Overture, BMWW dies by falling 23 floors out of a ship to his death. In Panel I, BMWW dies in an electric chair. In Panel II, we learn more about each of the stereotypes and that Before Columbus, the earth used to be roun (flat) but after Columbus added a /d/, the earth became round (round). BMWW drowns in a river. In Panel III, BMWW gets lynched. In Panel IV, Ham explains how the black race mixed and expanded, and then sells everyone off in a slave trade. In Panel V, BMWW remembers which foods he likes to eat. Finally, in the final chorus, everyone talks of documenting the past so the future will know how and why they exist. (I know that was really easy to follow so sorry if it got a little DUH, I know this already!!)

     The first dramaturgical choice that Parks focused on is repetition repetition repetition. I felt like I had deja vu throughout reading this play. Parks chose to use a variety of repetitions. The first type involves a character repeating a line of dialogue or phrase over and over again. An example is when BMWW says, "You: still is. They: be. Melon. Melon. Melon. Melon: mines.", or when ALL say, "Ham Bone Ham Bone Ham Bone Ham Bone." The line, "This is the death of the last black man in the whole entire world." is repeated often. A stage direction of bells ringing also pops up multiple times throughout the script. The second type of repetition is a section of dialogue between two characters being repeated: 

• (Page 127, The America Play and Other Works)
• Black Woman With Fried Drumstick: Sweetheart.
• Black Man With Watermelon: SPRING-TIME.
• Black Woman With Fried Drumstick: Sweetheart. 
• Black Man With Watermelon: SRPING-TIME. 
• Black Woman With Fried Drumstick: This could go on forever. 
• Black Man With Watermelon: Let's. Hope. Not. 
• (This section of text is literally repeated again. Not posting to save space.)

The third type of repetition is the reinforcement of an idea. The worl/world story is told over and over again by different characters, slightly varied each time it's repeated. 

     Why all of this repetition? As I was reading I began to discover a slight lyrical pattern to the text. There were also obvious places where rhyming with yourself or with another character was intentional. (I really hope this doesn't come off as offensive), but black people, especially during the civil war period, often used song to tell stories and communicate. Parks' choice of repetition and rhyme might have been a way to channel that lyrical way of telling a story. 

     The second dramaturgical choice Parks employed was the motif of death. Yes, obviously, BMWW dies over and over again. But through careful reading, I think I was able to grasp what Parks was weaving throughout her zany acid-trip of a script. Parks killed off more than just her main character. Parks killed off the idea of accurate, truthful history. She altered history by spanning thousands of years, including a character who's an Egyptian queen but setting her play in the present. Parks killed off the typical way of keeping track of history, suggesting instead to write something down and place it under a rock. The last scene is perhaps the most shocking example of this idea, when Yes and Greens Black-Eyed Peas Cornbread is telling everyone else, (he's speaking of keeping history here) "It will be of us but you will mention them from time to time so that in the future when they come along theyll know how/why they exist." I kept reading, but later went back and realized that that "them" is, dare I say it, white people!!! And even more shocking, "when they come along"! As in, Parks has written a world where white people do not yet exist. She has taken the foundation of history and flipped it on it's head. She has killed the idea of history in general.

     I apologize for exceeding the typical S&T post length, but hope that the long play title and character names, as well as my carefully thought out ideas and examples, make up for the few extra minutes you, Dr. Fletcher (and Jenny?) and any brave, patient students took the time to read. Thanks!!