The Liquid Plain (TCG Edition)

Naomi Wallace

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781559365147
• eBook ISBN:
  9781559368414
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

“American theater needs more plays like Naomi Wallace’s The Liquid Plain—by which I mean works that are historical, epic and poetic, that valorize the lives of the poor and oppressed.”—Time Out New York

On the docks of late eighteenth-century Rhode Island, two runaway slaves find love and a near-drowned man. With a motley band of sailors, they plan a desperate and daring run to freedom. As the mysteries of their identities come to light, painful truths about the past and present collide and flow into the next generation. Acclaimed playwright Naomi Wallace’s newest work brings to life a group of people whose stories have been erased from history. Told with lyricism and power, The Liquid Plain was awarded the 2012 Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play. This sweeping historical saga has enjoyed acclaimed runs at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Signature Theatre in New York.

Naomi Wallace is a playwright from Kentucky. Her plays, which have been produced in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, include In the Heart of America, Slaughter City, One Flea Spare, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Things of Dry Hours, The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East, And I and Silence, The Hard Weather Boating Party , and The Liquid Plain. Awards include the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (twice), Joseph Kesselring Prize, Fellowship of Southern Writers Drama Award, Obie Award, Horton Foote Award for Most Promising New American Play, MacArthur Fellowship, and the inaugural Windham Campbell Prize for Drama.

The LIQUID PLAIN

Production History

The world premiere of The Liquid Plain was produced by Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Bill Rauch, Artistic Director; Cynthia Rider, Executive Director) in Ashland, Oregon, on July 2, 2013. It was directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah. The scenic design was by Brenda Davis, the costume design was by Constanza Romero, the lighting design was by Christopher Akerlind, the sound design and original music were by Victoria Deiorio and the projection and video design were by Alex Koch; the dramaturg was Julie Felise Dubiner and the stage manager was D. Christian Bolender. The cast was:

ADJUA	June Carryl
DEMBI	Kimberly Scott
CRANSTON	Danforth Comins
BALTHAZAR/WILLIAM BLAKE	Armando Durán
LIVERPOOL JOE	Kevin Kenerly
BRISTOL	Bakesta King
JAMES DE WOLFE	Michael Winters
NESBITT	Josiah Phillips
GIFFORD	Richard Elmore
ENSEMBLE	June Carryl, Kevin Kenerly

The New York premiere of The Liquid Plain was produced by Signature Theatre (James Houghton, Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) on March 8, 2015. It was directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah. The scenic design was by Riccardo Hernandez, the costume design was by Paul Tazewell, the lighting design was by Thom Weaver, the sound design and original music were by Shane Rettig and the projection design was by Alex Koch; the production stage manager was Cole P. Bonenberger. The cast was:

ADJUA	Kristolyn Lloyd
DEMBI	Ito Aghayere
CRANSTON	Michael Izquierdo
BALTHAZAR/WILLIAM BLAKE	Karl Miller
LIVERPOOL JOE	Johnny Ramey
BRISTOL	LisaGay Hamilton
JAMES DE WOLFE	Robert Hogan
NESBITT	Lance Roberts
GIFFORD	Tuck Milligan
THE SHADOW	Tara A. Nicolas

The role of Bristol was originally written for LisaGay Hamilton.

Characters

ADJUA, born in West Africa, early twenties

DEMBI, born into slavery, from Charleston, mid-twenties

CRANSTON, a white sailor, born in American Colonies, early thirties

BALTHAZAR, Irish, United Irishman, thirties

LIVERPOOL JOE, a black sailor, grew up in Liverpool, twenties

BRISTOL, a free black woman, grew up in England, forties

WILLIAM BLAKE, the poet

JAMES DE WOLFE, a former U.S. senator, seventies

NESBITT, an old black sailor

GIFFORD, an old white sailor

THE SHADOW, a presence, the spirit of Adjua’s sister

GUINEA WORMS

Time

A possible 1791, and 1837.

Places

A harsh, dangerous and imagined Bristol, Rhode Island.

Docks. Tavern. Library of a grand estate. Bottom of the ocean.

Notes

Accents should be light, just a touch, and not realistic. As though remembered from another time.

This is a world conjured from imagination. Nothing about the design needs to be historically accurate.

In the Signature Theatre production, the text of each “passage” was projected for a few moments at the beginning of each scene.

While for Britannia’s distant shore

We weep the liquid plain,

And with astonish’d eyes explore

The wide-extended main.

—PHILLIS WHEATLEY

“A FAREWELL TO AMERICA,” 1773

Prelude

Bristol, Rhode Island, 1791. The far end of the docks. Between the dark and daybreak. As the lights come up, we see The Shadow sprinkle something like powder around the stage. The Shadow then disappears. Now we see Adjua helping Dembi wrap and hide Dembi’s breasts with a long, narrow piece of cloth. This is a ritual between them, and it is both sensual and simple. There are a few moments of wrapping and silence between them. Adjua gives her words to Dembi like a prayer. What they say to one another is a part of the morning ritual, a preparation for the day.

ADJUA: My love. (Beat) When we find our way back home, we will make our child together. It will be the most beautiful child.

DEMBI: Yes he will.

ADJUA: And this child’ll be a hundred worlds rising.

DEMBI: Our miracle.

(Dembi pulls on his shirt, adjusts it. Now they are both ready to face whatever the day brings.)

ACT ONE

Scene One

PROJECTED TEXT: BOOK ONE. PASSAGE OF CLAY: BRISTOL, RHODE ISLAND, 1791.

The docks. We hear ships rubbing against the docks, water rolling, though the sound is slightly distorted and not realistic.

We now see empty sugar casks. A pile of old rope. A heap of torn sails still needing to be mended. Perhaps a broken mast off the dock, the rusty chain of an anchor or a piece of severed hull. Sharp, dangerous things. And yet the docks are not cluttered. This part of the dock, though now mostly bare and derelict, was once busy with the small industry of the poor.

This is a world of violence and the threat of violence. There is always the presence of danger, and the decisiveness of people to use brute force, and respond to it. It is a predatory, ferocious environment with ragged edges that cut at every turn.

Lights up on Adjua and Dembi leaning over a jagge...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Special Thanks
• Introduction
• The Liquid Plain
• Further Reading
• About the Author