Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Lead. Role Size. Mary Elizabeth Braddon by William Powell Frith, 1865. In the colonial societies of the Americas and Australia, a quadroon or quarteron was a person with one quarter African / Aboriginal and three quarters European ancestry. Melodramatic and tragic, the events of The Octoroon unfold in a politically charged race to see if the plantation and Zoe can be saved from the clutches of Jacob MClosky. Boucicault's manuscript actually reads "Indian, French and 'Merican." Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon: or Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life (1861) is not so much a narrative as a series of Picquet's first-person answers to Mattison's questions, which seem to have transcribed verbatim, along with his own commentary. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. [2], Jacobs-Jenkins researched Boucicault heavily while working on An Octoroon and found an unfinished essay at the New York Public Library saying that theatre is a place for dramatic illusionthe most believable illusion of sufferingand catharsis. After various slaves are auctioned off, George and the buyers are shocked to see Zoe up on the stand. MClosky, who everyone agrees is awful, falls in love with her, as does George, and Scudder is already in love with her. Works Consulted: Barthelemy, Anthony G., ed. Bachelor. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins An Octoroon is a whirlwind of images and dialogue that leaves no one out of the conversation and makes no apologies for asking the hard questions. As she dies, Zoe tells George that now no laws will stand between us. This page is not available in other languages. The conflict centers around Zoe, the Octoroon, a term used at the time to describe a person who was 1/8 African, 7/8 Caucasian. 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. Williams made Picquet his concubine and she bore him four children, but only two survived enslavement. publication online or last modification online. Playwright taunts BJJ, and laments how theatre has changed since his death. Set on the fictional Terrebonne Plantation in Louisiana, The Octoroon depicts life in the American South with honesty and empathy. Louisa Picquet, b. It is an adaptation of Dion Boucicault's The Octoroon, which premiered in 1859. Log in here. BJJ, trying to wrest himself from a depressive funk, had wanted to investigate what still speaks to him in Boucicaults drama. Paul and Wahnotee arrive back with the mailbags and play around with the camera. Paul's best friend, the Indian Wahnotee, discovers Paul's body; he can speak only poor English, however, and is unable to communicate the tragedy to anyone else. The Octoroon Gender Female Age Range Young Adult, Adult Role Size Lead Time & Place mid 1800's, louisiana, plantation terrebonne, mississippi river Tags southern southern accent romantic passionate innocent soft kind illegitimate child bastard beautiful suicidal gentle loving trapped mixed race Analysis Mixed-race, Southern Accent. Already a member? 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. Hiram Mattison, Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon: or Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life. The most overt of this is Zoes status as an Octoroon, a person who is one-eighth black. This led Jacobs-Jenkins to see doubles and pairs in Boucicault's play, through relationships between characters e.g. 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! Another man called MClosky went through the courts and away went a thousand acres of Terrebonne to him. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Except for her chains, she could pass for a conventional likeness of Venus, the classical goddess of love. This pocket Bluetooth printer lets you print your precious memories before they hit Instagram. Set in the pre-Civil War South, The Octoroon deals heavily with racial themes. George and Zoe reveal their love for each other, but Zoe rejects George's marriage proposal. To all appearances, the young woman seen here represents a white captive. The show that I decided to watch was "An Octoroon" directed by Branden Jacobs Jenkins. The auctioneer arrives, along with prospective buyers, McClosky among them. 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. The Octoroon who is hiding in some bushes nearby, sacrifices her chances of freedom by leaping into the water and rescuing the young girl. 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. The Octoroon Dion Boucicault 2.66 431 ratings47 reviews This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, or, Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life A spectacular collision of the antebellum South and 21st century cultural politics, An Octoroon is a gasp-inducing deconstruction of a moustache-twirling melodrama by 19th century playwright Dion Boucicault that twists a funhouse world of larger-than-life stereotypes into blistering social commentary. The play is an adaptation of Dion Boucicault's 1859 abolitionist melodrama retold through Jacobs-Jenkins eyes. The Octoroon quickly garnered popular and critical acclaim. You're no negro" (p.43). George offers to take her to a different country, but Zoe insists that she stay to help Terrebonne; Scudder then appears and suggests that George marry Dora. George Peyton, the owners nephew, has come to assist the widow Peyton with her business. Scudder tells them that all could be saved if George marries Dora, but says he knows that Zoe and George are in love. . This character allowed abolitionists to draw attention to the sexual . It contains elements of Romanticism and melodrama. BJJ stops the action of the play. In May 1860, Mattison met with Picquet to help her raise money to free her mother from bondage. Mature Adult. Nataki Garrett directed the first production of An Octoroon outside of New York with Mixed Blood Theatre Company in the fall of 2015. [15] In his review for The New York Times, Ben Brantley called the play this decades most eloquent theatrical statement on race in America today.[16] The production transferred to Theatre for A New Audience's Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn and ran from February 14, 2015 to March 29, 2015. He almost proposes to Dora to get her fortune and save Terrebonne, but he cannot bring himself to lie. A stereo photograph of the original allowed even those of modest means to view it with a convincing illusion of depth. The men accuse Wahnotee of the murder, and McClosky calls for him to be lynched. Soho Rep's An Octoroon. Although Zoe is technically a freed woman, interracial marriage was still taboo at the time, and she and George face a lot of obstacles to. He comes across a therapist who recommends adapting his favorite play, The Octoroon by Dion Boucicault, as a jumping off point out of his writer's block. 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. He soon meets and falls in love with an "octoroon", a young woman who is one-eighth black. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? This demure, pensive vision of miscegenation and its dire consequences was made by the popular British sculptor John Bell. Last Updated on June 19, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. The title of the play refers to a character named Zoe. Their family included Henry's four year old daughter, Harriet, and Louisa's eight year old daughter, Eliza. An Octoroon begins with a prologue, in which a surrogate for the author, BJJ, introduces himself to the audience as a Black playwright, a label he doesnt fully comprehend. 8.) Decent Essays. He then confesses his love for Zoe. Jacobs-Jenkins knows Boucicaults play cant be redeemed, but he challenges us to see whats there. His parents, Solomon and Lydia Mattison, raised him and his eleven siblings in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Octoroon was a controversial play when it debuted, given its focus on slavery when the pre-Civil War United States was engaged in a heated debate over the institution. In art and literature, these figures were almost exclusively female. Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street. 1 May 2023 . The Octoroon. But neither the absurdity nor the horror will disappear by closing our eyes. Though it would hardly seem likely at first glance, this pallid image of slavery directly addresses the condition of black bondage. Act IV takes place by Captain Rattss Steamer Magnolia, where Wahnotee has been captured. Gain full access to show guides, character breakdowns, auditions, monologues and more! Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story Is Our TV Pick Of The Week, Small Town Horror Story: The Racist Attack Of A FedEx Worker. But white cast members, offended by the unapologetic racism of their nasty slave-owner characters, dropped out. He plans to buy her and make her his mistress. 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. 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. George is courted by the rich Southern belle heiress Dora Sunnyside, but he finds himself falling in love with Zoe, the daughter of his uncle through one of the slaves. date the date you are citing the material. Despite being physically separated, Picquet explains, "I often thought her prayers followed me, for I never could forget her" (p. 18). Text for each Image of the Week is written by Sheldon Cheek. To start off it seemed like a comedy but then quickly turned to a melodrama. Among the summaries and analysis available for The Octoroon, there are 1 Full Study Guide, 2 Short Summaries and 1 . We don't currently have any scenes from The Octoroon . For its form he turned to a another carved vision of abject captivity, the highly praised Greek Slave by the expatriate American artist Hiram Powers. 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. I feel like it has interesting connections to "Lady Audley's Secret," though. An Octoroon By Brandenkins Summary. Pete pleads for MClosky to not be lynched, so George demands that M'Closky be taken away, not revenged by Wahnotee, but M'Closky escapes and sets fire to the boat. George photographs Dora with his camera while she and Zoe plot to make George marry her. Yet when the staging must focus attention on an image encapsulating the evil violence of Americas racist past, a picture is not just found but held for a length of time that makes it impossible to look away. Jacobs-Jenkins reframes Boucicault's play using its original characters and plot, speaking much of Boucicault's dialogue, and critiques its portrayal of race using Brechtian devices. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. The Octoroon Play Writers: Dion Boucicault Scenes Sorry! Wahnotee tracks him down and confronts him; in the ensuing struggle, Wahnotee kills McClosky. Pete, George, and Dora acquaint themselves when Zoe enters to meet George. 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 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 . In her new life with Williams, Picquet became a concubine and a housekeeper. It concerns the residents of a Louisiana plantation called Terrebonne, and sparked debates about the abolition of slavery and the role of theatre in politics. MClosky, meanwhile, is beginning to go crazy, believing he is being followed (which he is, by Wahnotee). Zoe enters to say goodbye to Dora and George but faints and tells George to give her the poisonous liquid, claiming its a restorative (73). Wahnotee, accused by the members of Captain Ratts ship of killing Paul, is about to be lynched. Minnie comforts Dido and they look forward to their new lives on Captain Ratts boat. 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 . All scenes are property and copyright of their owners. Zoe and George are alone, and George confesses his love for her. An Octoroon is set way down yonder in the land of cotton during the antebellum period. [1] Page 1. . MClosky then breaks some tragic news: The bank is foreclosing on their mortgage and Terrebonne is up for sale. The Octoroon was written by Dion Boucicault and was adapted from the novel The Quadroon by Thomas Mayne Reid. Log in here. [17], Company One Theatre in Boston co-produced the play with ArtsEmerson, directed by Summer L. Williams. Jacob McClosky, the man who ruined Judge Peyton, has come to inform George and his aunt (who was bequeathed a life interest in the estate) that their land will be sold and their slaves auctioned off separately. Mrs. Peyton informs her nephew George, who has just returned from Europe, that he is the heir to the Terrebonne estate. Discussion of themes and motifs in Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot's The Octoroon. During this time, Louisa's mother was repeatedly impregnated by Cook; her mother was "pretty white; not white for white people" though (p. 8). Boucicaults racial attitudes are both progressive for his day and unmistakably traditionalist, which is to say white supremacist. In Mobile, Picquet describes her love interest with a "colored man more white than [she was]" (p. The crunch comes when the good-hearted George Peyton has to choose between his love for Zoe, of one-eighth black ancestry, and his need to save the estate by marrying a rich heiress. 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. In order to ask for donations, Picquet travelled across the Northeast. eNotes.com, Inc. The Writer, an African American, stepped into the drama playing the roles of both its male white protagonist and antagonist. She is beautiful, educated, kind, and polished. A theatrical, melodramatic reality is created to tell the story of an octoroon woman (a person who is black) named Zoe and her quest for identity and love. Harder to overcome will be the discovery by MClosky, the villainous overseer who now owns half the estate, that Zoes freedom papers are not valid and therefore shes to be sold with the rest of the enslaved. Zoe reciprocates his feelings but says that they cannot be together, as she is an Octoroon and interracial marriage is illegal. [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. transform as a part of life. Johnson openly acknowledged these children and provided the girls with a superior education and marriage to prominent white men. This role is played by Matthew Hancock, who while delivering a sprawling monologue, applies whiteface in preparation of taking on the roles of both George and MClosky. Everything was handled with extraordinary care and concern, from the ticketless check-in to the spacing of the quite comfortable chairs. McClosky, however, outbids her for Zoe; George is restrained from attacking him by his friends. Zoe also uses the same term unlike in the . Mattison resumed pastoral work in Watertown, New York in 1842 and then in Rome, New York in 1844. He received his doctorate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from the Yale School of Drama. Scenically, this production of An Octoroon is limited. Naila Aladdin-Sanders costumes hit the right rompish note, but Frederica Nascimentos set establishes little and Nicholas Santiagos video gets lost in the nighttime shuffle. Nagle overdoes it in the early going as Playwright and Wahnotee, but by the time he plays LaFouche, an auctioneer, he has a better handle on the cartoon dial. Shakespeare in the Woods 2023 Season The solitary scuffle thrillingly raises the productions pulse. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of The Octoroon by Dion Boucicault. 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. eNotes.com [26], An Octoroon was staged by the Georgia Southern University Theatre & Performance Program from November 8 to November 15, 2017.[27]. Similar classifications were octoroon for one-eighth black (Latin root octo-, means "eight") and quintroon for one-sixteenth black. He produced a huge number of plays of which the exact number is between 135 and 400 titles (Kosok,82). The drama tells the moving story of Zoe, the mixed-race daughter of a rich Southern judge and plantation owner by his black paramour. Besides race, what are some representations of slaves and slavery that are not complicity with the dominant ideology of this time? Ends Sept. 19Info: (323) 663-1525 or www.FountainTheatre.comPrice: $25 $45; Pay-What-You-Want on Monday nights, subject to availability.Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes. This issue arose because at first glance Picquet looked to be "a white lady" (p. 5). Through artfully constructed layers of sentimentality and aesthetic contrivance emerges one of the primary justifications for the enslavement of a whole group of human beings: the notion of one drop of black blood, the drop sinister, by which a light-skinned person could be consigned to a life of bondage. This shuffle of identities is insouciantly performed as a minstrel carnival. The Octoroon auction scene The plantation and townsfolk attend the auction of Terrebonne and all of its slaves. Hired out by Cook to the Bachelor family, Picquet labored in Mrs. The slaves PETE, MINNIE, and DIDO are sold to a steamboat captain, RATTS. Ed. 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. NYT Critic . Melodrama only magnifies the moral ludicrousness. Mattison glosses over this violence, stating that "it is too horrible and indelicate to be read in a civilized country" (p. 15). After she takes the liquid, Scudder enters and informs them of MCloskys guilt and the found letter, but it is too lateZoe is dying. He has, evidently, sunk quite a bit of money into his inventions, and they have all been giant failures. Eveline becomes very fond of her and finally persuades her father to buy the Octoroon from her French owner. He tells Wah-No-Tee, an Indian and his protector, to remove the cap from the camera. [] George, you may, without a blush, confess your love for the Octoroon (75). Time & Place. Dido protests, but Zoe steals the liquid and runs away. George reluctantly agrees. 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. A Black playwright is struggling to find his voice among a chorus of people telling him what he should and should not be writing. Wahnotee appears, drunk and sorrowful, and tells them that Paul is buried near them. There are also the two Sunnysides: Mr. Sunnyside and his daughter, Dora. 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. Dora tells Zoe that she could save the house with her wealth as an heiress if George marries her. Before long it was widely reproduced on a smaller scale as one of Mintons ceramic Parian-ware figurines, as well as in bronze replicas. 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. I wondered if I might be moved to tears at my return to the theater, but instead I felt grateful and relieved that human ingenuity wasnt thwarted by a virus. publication in traditional print. 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 is defined as somebody who is 1/8th black. George reveals his love to Zoe, who loves him too, and the fact that she is the daughter of a slave does not deter him. The Octoroon or The Lily of Louisiana is a dark tale of crime, race and slavery. Take a look at our library of free monologues . [25], Artists Repertory Theatre, located in Portland, Oregon, was to stage An Octoroon from September 3 to October 1, 2017. The play starts with the director telling the audience, in a hilarious way, what inspired him to . The production was critically acclaimed, winning an Obie Award for best new American play in 2014 (a tie with his previous play, Appropriate). Mary Elizabeth Braddon. 2 Come with The plot focused on Zoe, a young woman who is an octoroon (i.e. As indicated by the inscription on the base of the statue, she is instead an octoroonthat is, an exceptionally light-skinned person of mixed race, technically defined as one-eighth black and the rest white.