Show And Tell (Checkpoint 3) --- Zora Neale Hurston - "Spears"

Spears by Zora Neale Hurston
c. 1926
The play was never produced. It won an honorable mention in the first Opportunity literary contest.

This play centers around the Lualaba tribe in a fictitious area of Africa. There has been a drought, and the tribe is slowly starving to death. At the top of the first act, the Lualaba warriors are complaining that there is no game to be hunted, nor is there enough water in the river to harbor fish. Monanga Wa, the King of the Chiefs, calls a council meeting. The women of the tribe break into the meeting to beg the King for sustenance. When the King denies Zaidi, his own daughter, the warrior Uledi produces food for the women while the men look on jealously. The King's elderly councilman, Bombay, suggests that the tribe sell their surplus of women to the Wahehe tribe in order to survive. The women and the men of the tribe all reject this idea and Bombay declares that he is going to the river to drown himself, since his wisdom will not be heeded. Vent Vogel, servant to the Wahehe chief, comes to Monanga Wa to demand their surrender and to be given 50 women, including Zaidi in repayment for the food, which it is revealed was stolen from the Wahehe by Uledi. Uledi intercepts Vogel and cuts off his top-bun, and stuffs it into the servant's mouth to silence him. Vogel leaves, but not before warning of the war that is sure to ensue if they refuse his master's demands. After Zaidi pleads for Uledi's life, the King forgives his act of thievery (which has brought upon this war) and is inspired by Uledi's powerful speech to fight the Wahehe rather than accept their demands. The chief of the Wahehe, Monoko, comes to speak to Monanga Wa, but Uledi rebuffs him, saying that a king will only speak to another king. Monoko leaves, heavily insulted and promising a fight. When a bloody spear is thrown into the clearing where the Lualaba tribe stands, war is declared. All the men leave to go battle the Wahehe warriors, leaving the women alone on stage. The women become terrified by the sounds of the battle and flee, fearing the worst. Zaidi alone remains by the totem pole, and cowers on the ground awaiting her fate. Monoko and Uledi battle, and it is the Lualaba warrior who triumphs. He brings the foreign chief's leopard skin to Zaidi and stands her upon it as it begins to rain.

The elements I found interesting in this play was the duration of the non-speaking action and the lack of ambiguity in the plot. There are several times in the play when the witch-doctor is called to perform some act of magic, and a ritual of dance follows every time. The action is described in detail in the script, but it is only in imagining a performance that you get a sense of how long each of these rituals must take on stage. At the end of Act One, there is an extremely lengthy dance as the tribesmen and women attempt to bring rain back to their desolate land. There are several other rituals, and then the fight sequence at the end, which is only described in sounds and the women's reactions to the approaching noise of the battle. I found this interesting because it creates a more visceral world for this play compared to many plays in the Western cannon. It also creates a feeling of this play as a visual spectacle, which is especially interesting since it has never been produced. The plot itself is extremely straightforward, and there is no ambiguity about why any of the action occurs. Even the placement of women is stated in a point-of-fact fashion when Zaidi tells her father that she is his slave and he responds by affirming that women were made to serve men. The dialogue creates a fully-fleshed world with no room for misinterpretation. By centering the plot around the basic need for food to survive, Hurston creates a world of action and reaction, and not much else.