Calshakes - Spunk

My wife and I went to our second play for the 2012 season of CalShakes.  This time, we saw Spunk, which is William Shakespeare's tribute to the African American experience in the first half of the 20th Century.  I was really surprised to learn that he not only was some sort of time-traveler but that he had such an appreciation for the blues.  It was also pretty interesting to hear that The Bard could capture 1920s Harlem slang as well as he did.

What?  What's that?  Every play at CalShakes isn't Shakespeare?  Ohhh.  Okay.

Spunk is a play that was adapted from the works of Zora Neale Hurston.  It contains three stories.  The first one deals with abuse and revenge.  The second deals with a country boy coming to Harlem and trying to earn a living without actually working.  The third, and most powerful, deals with marital infidelity and forgiveness.  There's also a lot of music in it, and much of it was live, as Anthony Peterson, one hell of a blues guitarist, provided the musical accompaniment.

It was entertaining, and at 90 minutes, it zipped along.  One thing that was nice for my wife and I was that, unlike The Tempest, we didn't feel like we needed to do any homework before we saw the show.  We were both able to go into it without knowing a whole lot (although I suppose it helps to know a bit about the African American experience, but the themes are so universal that even that's not necessary) and enjoy it thoroughly.

The music wasn't the only great thing.  The dialogue was a lot of fun, and the actors really captured the rhythm of what they were saying.  I suppose this sort of thing really does belong at a Shakespeare festival in that sense, as just like when you have a good actor reading Shakespeare, sometimes the pleasure comes from not so much WHAT they're saying but HOW they're saying it.  I also couldn't help but notice the movement of the actors.  There was dancing, but when they were doing dialogue and/or narrating, there was also a lot of movement going on, much like a dance.

As I stated before, it was the final story that resonated with me the most.  I'm not sure exactly why.  I haven't dealt with marital infidelity when it comes to my own marriage.  (And for the record, in this play, it's the woman who cheats on her husband.)  I also hope that if I die as an old man that I'm still able to say that.  However, it's one of those things that does happen.  I hate using the passive voice like that, as it implies that people aren't responsible for their actions.  I, for one, don't put myself in situations where I would be tempted to cheat on my wife.  I have far too much invested in this relationship to go throwing it away like that.

But I'm human.  So is my wife.  Can't help but wonder - what if?  I think to myself that I could never forgive it if such a thing happened.  I don't think she could either.  But would I be willing to let that ruin everything we've created together?  I dread to think on it.

All I know is that it made me happy to see the couple reconciled by the end of their story.