SPUNK A play with songs by George C. Wolfe: Music by Chic Streetman; Adapted for the stage from three short stories by Zora Neale Hurston Originally developed at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and was first presented in New York as a co-production of the New York Shakespeare Festival and Crossroads Theater Company. Using the blues, choral narrative and dance, the three tales focus on men and women, trapped inside the "laughin' kind of lovin' kind of hurtin' kind of pain, that comes from being human. The following is an excerpt from an on-line study guide. Although there is a third person narrator who tells the story, the actions of the main characters in "Spunk" are interpreted mostly by the men who stand around commenting on what they see as they lounge about their village's one store. The narrator is detached, uninvolved in the action, but the men who speak have opinions about everything. As the story opens, a man and a woman walk arm-in-arm down the street of the village and into the brush. As the men watch the couple walk away, their gossiping makes it clear that the man is Spunk Banks, a "giant of a brown-skinned man" who is known in town and at the saw-mill for his bravery. The identity of the woman is not revealed until a small nervous man enters the store, and Elijah, one of the other men, begins to tease him. He is Joe Kanty, and the woman on Spunk's arm is Joe's wife, Lena. Shamed by Elijah's mockery, Joe takes out a razor and announces that he is going to confront Spunk and get his wife back. He leaves the store in pursuit ... The first of the three stories, Sweat, tells the story of a young washerwoman who is abused and betrayed by her estranged husband, and the ultimate triumph over him. The second piece, Story In Harlem Slang, is told in 1940s Harlemese. It is the tale of two street lotharios trying to out-hustle each other and win the favour of - and a meal from - a domestic on her pay-day afternoon off. The third tale, The Gilded Six Bits, is a bitter-sweet story of an adoring husband's betrayal by his loving but innocent wife. CAST: 4 men, 2 women INSTRUMENTATION: Guitar
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODU3MzQ=