One part of ‘Big River’ that REALLY bothered me
This weekend I saw my school’s production of “Big River”, a musical adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”.
Towards the end, Jim sings “Free at Last”, in which he expresses his desire to be free from his enslavement. The black ensemble emerges and sits to listen. It’s a very powerful moment in the show.
But then, the white ensemble files in. Each white cast member shakes the hand of a black cast member. Everyone smiles and has a buddy-buddy moment, and then they all share the benches and join in with Jim towards the end of the song.
It COMPLETELY ruined the piece for me. I found it not only contrived, but just outright rude. Jim is painfully but joyously expressing his desire to be free — the black ensemble enters and shares a powerful moment of solidarity. But wait! Lo and behold, here come the white folk. Everyone’s happy now! Oh look, they’re shaking hands. It was a big, stinking, masturbatory “look how far we’ve come!” moment.
It didn’t even make sense; aside from Huckleberry, Jim is treated like dirt by every white character he encounters. Giving “Big River” a “look how far we’ve come!” message is a fundamental mistake; at most, the message should have been ”we’ve got a damn long way to go, so get to work”
“Free at Last” could have been a poignant nod to the continuing problem of racism and institutionalized oppression in our country. Instead, it was warped into supporting a “good work guys, there’s no more racism anywhere anymore!” attitutde that does nothing to help oppressed minorities.
(Otherwise, the show was very entertaining and the cast/crew did a fine job!)
^ Yo, I felt EXACTLY the same way when I saw it. When the black ensemble came out at the end and watched Jim, I thought it was going to be a poignant message about solidarity coming from an individual’s achievement. Ugh, but then the white ensemble came out and transformed it into a gooey PSA about how in the end, race doesn’t matter.
Oy, this is why I generally do not like musicals, or movies or stories in general, in which race plays a large factor in the storyline. They are almost always told from the perspective of a white person and end with a message of “We’re all equals!” even though this takes place in the freaking 1860s in which there is absolutely no rationale as to how the story translates into a message of racial equality whatsoever.
All of this.
Allofthis!
Here’s what pisses me off.
I was the dramaturg.
If the director actually gave a fucking shit, I could’ve informed him of where he was wrong.
Instead he told me to I didn’t need to go to rehearsal.
All he asked me to do was read the fucking book.
All the rage.
