Emmie Collins

WTE MW 12:30

Take Five - Analysis of Similar Works by a Different Artist

25 February 2019

There is a clear connection between the themes of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ plays and the

plays of Robert O’Hara. America’s unpleasant history regarding slavery and racism is one of

common themes that Jacobs-Jenkins and O’Hara share. In Insurrection: Holding History,

O’Hara’s first play, the character Mistress Mo’tel discusses the lines that are drawn between field

slaves and house slaves. In Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon, the characters Dido and Minnie chat

about their transition from being field slaves to house slaves and how differently they should

behave. They are perceived very differently now that they are no longer fieldhands, and their

fates are affected since they are no longer in the loop. This is an overlap between the two plays

regarding status within the confines of slavery. The content is similar, yet the style in which the

two playwrights go about addressing this issue is different. Jacobs-Jenkins’ has all the dialogue

coming from Dido and Minnie, whereas O’Hara writes the house vs. field slave commentary for

the Mistress of the plantation. There is more of an emphasis on the slave relations in An

Octoroon, with very little dialogue coming from the master or mistress to the slaves themselves.

In Insurrection: Holding History, there is more of a direct connection with the slaves to the

mistress and the master. The slaves kill the master and the mistress speaks directly to the slaves

about his whereabouts and the proper behavior of a house slave. There is more a serious

underlying tone in Insurrection, which isn’t fully present in An Octoroon. Dido and Minnie
discuss in a light-hearted manner, whereas the character of Mistress Mo’tel is very matter-of-fact

and demanding.

Jacobs-Jenkins and O’Hara both mixing things up when it comes to the race of characters

and the requirements of the actors. In Neighbors, Jacobs-Jenkins has a interracial family living

next door to a family in blackface. The preferred race of the actors in blackface is unclear and

open for creative freedom. In Barbecue, O’Hara’s most recent play, there is a white family that

starts off the play. In the second scene, the whole family is now black, yet wearing the same

clothes. The characteristics and names stay the same, the actors and color of their skin change.

The family in Barbecue has very different characteristics than the characters in Jacobs-Jenkins’

plays. Perhaps this is because this family is represented by both white and black actors, which

differs from Jacobs-Jenkins’ plays. In Jacobs-Jenkins’ plays, the characteristics tie very closely

to the identity of the character or the stereotype connected to the race of the character. This is not

the same as in Barbecue, since both the white actors and black actors are playing the same

trashy, trailer park characters.

The back-and-forth rhythm of Insurrection and Barbecue overlaps with the rhythm of

Jacobs-Jenkins’ plays. The style of structure and rhythm of these two playwrights feel very

similar to me. Insurrection ebbs and flows out of reality and into the past of the Nat Turner

rebellion and when T.J, Ron’s great-great grandfather was a younger man. Barbecue goes

back-and-forth from the all-white cast to the all-black cast. Jacobs-Jenkins’ plays differ in the

way that there seems to be a slower pace at which the story progresses and the message usually

hits the audience at the very end.

 The tone of the text in both O’Hara’s plays and Jacobs-Jenkins’ plays overlaps and the

characters interact in similar ways. Both playwrights tend to make their characters particularly

aggressive and there are key moments where these characters blow up out of anger and contempt

for either themselves or another character. However, even though both playwrights also take

comedic approaches in the character development, Jacobs-Jenkins’ tone in his plays feels darker

to me than in O’Hara’s. There seems to me to be more of an overcoming and triumphant

sensation in O’Hara’s Insurrection and in Barbecue than in the plays of Jacob-Jenkins.

Jacobs-Jenkins adheres to the traditions of playwriting by writing a narrative that brings

theatergoers back to the brilliant stories written by Tracy Letts and Tennessee Williams.

Appropriate ties in many of the same stylistic and formal elements as the some of greatest

American playwrights, however he rebels with his own artistic flair that makes his plays unique

to him. One of the biggest ways Jacobs-Jenkins rebels is in his characterization. He makes his

characters feel like caricatures, even in his plays Appropriate and Gloria, which don’t even have

the obvious caricature costumes and dynamics. His characters are combative and sometimes

even belligerent, yet he makes them easy to identify with as an audience member. Jacobs-Jenkins

also rebels in his use of technical elements and in his methods to draw the audience in. For

example, he starts and ends the play in total darkness and the sound of cicadas. There is a clear

tie with the technical elements and the message that Jacobs-Jenkins wants to leave the audience

with.