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Stevedore
Like a gust of wind sweeping through a hothouse, there has swept into the world of the theatre a new type of drama different in its entire makeup from conventional Broadway productions. "Stevedore" is an excellent example of this new type. In sharp contrast to the artificiality and shallowness of most contemporary dramas, "Stevedore" is real and vital. It does not run away from life into the past, into the fantastic. It does not hide itself in a labyrinth of human emotions and desires. No, "Stevedore" is real and because it is real it is coarse and brutal just as the lines of its characters are coarse and brutal. Above ail it is simple, simple in plot, in dialogue, and in setting, nothing unessential, nothing that does not contribute to the story or to the atmosphere of the story is present. And it is this simplicity that gives to the drama its smoothness and fast moving action. From the moment the curtain rises till the moment it finally falls the plot progresses forward without a break, each scene developing from the previous one, each scene suggesting the next one, moving with rapidly increasing tempo to the stirring and powerful climax, after which it closes with a suddenness that leaves the audience with nerves tingling. It would be wrong, however, to attribute its stirring and dramatic appeal to this alone. Its roots lie deeper than this. Its roots lie in the fact that the entire nature of the play is one of fire, and vitality, and vividness. The whole story and treatment of the story contains such force and power, the acting is so dynamic and virile, that the audience cannot help but feel the force that animates it. Like a spark it leaps across the gap and completes the circuit in the hearts of the audience. One cannot sit placidly by and scan the play objectively. It arouses in the onlooker the same emotions and the same feelings that it itself creates. It is this subjectiveness, this feeling of unity with the actors that makes possible a full sympathy with and a full understanding of, the nature of the drama. The conditions portrayed in this history of New Orleans longshoremen is typical of the conditions of the negroes throughout the South. As the plot unfolds we see in vivid reality the oppressions and injustices that the negroes endure. As each terse scene develops we see the forces and the conditions which mould the lives of these people. We see the police brutality, we see how the negroes are cheated in time and in pay, how they are looked down on and despised as inferior beings. We see how miserably they exist, how harshly they are treated; how they live in constant fear of lynchings and hoodlum attacks. All this is brought out not only in the story itself but in the characters. These characterizations are not something apart from the plot they are an integral part of it. Each character represents a different type, each living under the same conditions yet each reacting differently to the forces of his environment. There is Lonnie Thompson, a "bad nigger," a "nigger" that thought he was as good as a white man. There is Jim Veal, the gang captain, "a good nigger," a "nigger" that knew his place and was thankful for any crust of bread that the "white massah" threw him. There is Blakesnake, powerful and fiery, not as developed as Lonnie Thompson but who could, when shown the way, act with a fire and a fierceness that Lonnie lacked. There are others: Lem Morris, the union worker organizer who showed Lonnie the road to freedom; Al Regan, the ignorant union member, who quits because, "Who ever heard of a union with niggers and whites in it?"; Ruby Oxley, Lonnie's sweetheart, who had no other interest in life except him. And then there is Binnie, Binnie the sharp-tongued, Binnie the hard-headed, who never lost her head and who remained cool and practical while others became panicky, who took her place on the improvised barricades with the men when they were attacked by Mick's gang of hoodlums. These and more types are all represented and developed. They all help to create a real picture of negro life, of negro misery, and oppression. Yet "Stevedore" does more than merely portray the oppression of these people. It does more than merely decry the race hatred and police brutality it portrays. It goes to the root of these conditions. It does not cry, "Can such things be?" It demands, "Why can such things be and what can we do about them?" It shows how the southern industrialists, the rugged individualists, who put themselves above laws and regulations that we in the north take more or less for granted, are responsible for the misery and oppression in the south These "defenders of American ideals" have realized that when their workers are divided into two hostile factions, "black" and "white", neither is able to win any decent conditions. "Stevedore" brings out the fact that both the negroes ond whites in the South must also realize this fact before they will ever be able to attain complete rights to "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
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