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Spunk (1935)
- Rutgers University Press
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spunk (1935) Although it was never produced, Spunk is arguably Hurston’s most crafted play, next to Polk County (1944). It also functions as a bridge between the earliest successes of Hurston’s career and her culminating achievement, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). The play began as the short story of the same title, which won Hurston second prize in the inaugural 1925 Opportunity literary contest as well as attracting the notice of the Harlem intelligentsia. The story was later published in the June 1925 issue of Opportunity , and Alain Locke included it in the same year in his seminal anthology, The New Negro. The play retains the basic plot elements of the original story, including the love triangle between Jim (Joe in the short story), Spunk, and Evalina (Lena), Spunk’s killing of Jim, and the element of conjure. However, the play is quintessentially comic, while the story ends in tragedy. In the earlier work, Spunk kills Jim and is acquitted of his murder, but is eventually killed by the lumber mill’s huge circular saw; in his final moments, Spunk tells one of the onlookers that he believes Jim’s ghost has pushed him in retribution . The final scene is desolate, yet strangely devoid of affect: “The cooling board consisted of three sixteen-inch boards on saw horses, a dingy sheet was his shroud,” Hurston writes. “The women ate heartily of the funeral baked meats and wondered who would be Lena’s next. The men whispered coarse conjectures between guzzles of whiskey.” In contrast, in the play, it is Jim who dies at the hands of the saw, and Evalina and Spunk who are left to live their life of “love from on high.” More significantly, the character of Spunk himself undergoes a complete transformation . In the story, Spunk is described as “a giant of a brown skinned man,” “skeered of nothin’,” a crack shot who would “beat you full of button holes as quick as he’s look atcher.” By the time he appears in the play, he is a “box-picking fool” rather than a gunslinging one; a large man, but “sweet-smelling and clean, like magnolias.” He bears a strong resemblance to Hurston’s most memorable hero, Tea Cake of Their Eyes Were Watching God, a man who “looked like the love thoughts of women . . . Crushing aromatic herbs with every step he took.” Between the publication of the short story and beginning work on the dramatic version , Hurston had spent years collecting stories, songs, and dances in the South; she had been trained by Franz Boas and funded in her research by Charlotte Osgood Mason. The play is thus infused with a variety of folk elements almost wholly absent from the short story. One of the strengths of the play is the way in which Hurston weaves together song, story, and ethnography, retaining the fundamental dramatic structure of the story’s plot while also incorporating cultural practices such as the toe party, croquet matches, lining songs, voodoo rites, and of course, the idiomatic expressions for which Hurston is best known. The song’s chants and ballads, in turn, play a strong role in conveying the emotions of the characters and are thus a fundamental aspect of the play’s development. It is worth noting that parts of Spunk—specifically, several of the musical and dance interludes—may have been staged as part of The Great 227 090 fiery-spunk (221-268) 4/9/08 11:08 AM Page 227 Day and From Sun to Sun, which were both described as programs of “Original Negro Folklore” (see Appendix). Both works include lining songs (“Can’t You Line It?”) as well as a ring play; The Great Day also has a “Pea-vine Candle Dance” as part of the program that may very well have been inserted as act 3, scene 2 of this play. 228 • spunk 090 fiery-spunk (221-268) 4/9/08 11:08 AM Page 228 [54.92.135.47] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:19 GMT) Spunk cast: Spunk Evalina Jim Bishop, Evalina’s husband Hodge Bishop, Jim’s father Ruby Jones Nunkie Oral Willie Joe Blue Trout Admiral Georgia Watson Teazie Daisy Maggie Mae Railroad Gang Leader [Singing-liner] Boss Captain Hammer Convict Railroad Gang Chain Gang Cat-men (Six) act one Scene 1 Setting: All action from spectators’ viewpoint. A railroad track through the Florida woods. Luxuriant foliage on the backdrop. A hand car with tools...