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Robert OHaras Insurrection: Holding History Robert OHara, the playwright and director best known for his time-splicing historical epics debuted with Insurrection: Holding History in 1996 (20 Questions for Robert OHara) and immediately attracted attention as the author touching upon such uneasy and controversial aspects as the credibility of generally accepted historical discourse, black peoples identity with concepts (or misconnects) forming it, homosexuality, and peoples roots and integrity. Robert OHara grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and left home at the age of 18; which he recognizes today as an immediate escape (20 Questions for Robert OHara). Having at first an ambition of becoming a lawyer, he later got disappointed with studies in college and opted for a career of the playwright and artistic director. The Public Theater and American Conservatory Theater became OHaras first artistic homes when they decided to produce his first professional play. Later Woolly Mammoth Theater Company and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company were added to this environment, as they both produced World Premiere productions of Robert OHaras works (Robert OHara: In Search of the Artistic Home). At present, Robert OHara is a well-known dramatist and stage director with a number of prestigious awards. In 2010, he received Helen Hayes Award for his new play Antebellum and an OBIE Award for directing the premiere of the In the Continuum at Primary Stages, as well as the 2010 NAACP Best Director Award for the direction of Eclipsed by Danai Guiria. The combination of OHaras authorship and direction of the World Premiere of his Insurrection: Holding History at the New York Shakespeare Festival contributed to its success: the stage production received the Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Play and was published by TCG and Dramatist Play Service. The Inheritance is OHaras recent film writing and directing debut. OHaras ideas of the theater environment as the artistic home reveal his views of how

much cooperation and combined artistic efforts of all those working in the theater matters for making it an artistic event (Robert OHara: In Search of the Artistic Home). A prolific playwright and director, Robert OHara is also currently an Adjunct Professor at NYU/TISCH School of the Arts. Insurrection: Holding History remains one of Robert OHaras major works that makes the audience laugh, wonder, marvel, sympathize, and, as intended by the author, break the bread of ideas, soak up the drink of entertainment and choke on the Truth(Robert OHara: In Search of the Artistic Home). The rich, multifaceted discourse of this time-bending stage fantasy presents scenes from 1831 and 1996 existing side by side, with clashes of ideas and events of the two different eras giving food for thought to both the main character of the play and the audience. In his authors note, OHara points out that this play should be done as if it were a Bullet through the Time (OHara 6). Capitalized words render particular significance to the authors idea of penetrating historical layers and digging out the truth, no matter how unappealing it may seem to some people. Drilling holes by shooting bullets may reveal the facts that shed a different ray of light on generally accepted rules and concepts; however, only such an approach can help us recognize the truth about ourselves and the world around us. The main character in the play is Ron, a homosexual African American graduate student of Columbia University who has to stand up to the canonized regulations and worldviews of his environment. The play starts with the scene of Nat Turners 189th birthday; Ron writing his thesis on American slave insurrections happens to be the great-great-grandson of T.J., a former slave who took part in the famous 1831 revolt in Virginia. That tragic event claimed the lives of dozens of whites and led to the executions and revenge killings of many black slaves. This characters initials are the same as OHaras grandfather, the person to whose memory the book has been dedicated. The

time dimensions in the play are presented as now and then; the place is here and there (OHara 5). One of the key questions suggested by the author is how people should understand and interpret events of the past, to what extent real and authentic history can be regarded as creditable narratives with their assumptions regarding classifications of race, sex, and gender (Carpenter 186). Ronnie can hear his ancestors silent thoughts; he is transformed to the past to get the first-hand information about historical events that he had previously interpreted in a primitive and inadequate way, not being aware of his roots and complicated issues of historical realities. Ronnie gets involved in a love affair with a slave, and in this way the author wants to draw the audiences attention to the fact that homosexuality existed in the antebellum South, the point that was never touched upon before (Carpenter 187). Actually, todays US black community is reluctant to accept the fact maintaining a definitely negative position regarding black male homosexuality. Reclaiming his roots helps Ron to achieve a better understanding of his own identity. The graphic design of the books title page is a direct illustration to the question and idea expressed in the title: can history be held? Can human hands (and mind) keep something as fleeting as tokens of time? How can people preserve the truth about their roots and the past, and how to learn the truth and pass it on to posterity? Robert OHaras acknowledgments starting with words of gratitude and devotion to the authors grandfather, mother, grandmother, and the entire OHara family are followed by the address to the cast and crew of MFA Thesis production, those who provided him with the 1st Artistic Home, the 2d Family who made the World Premier possible, the 3d Family who, according to OHara, let his spirits SPEAK. All these people, as the author points out, were motivated simply by the love of Theater (OHara vi-vii). Insurrection: Holding History was first

performed in an Actors Equity Association-approved Showcase production as Robert OHaras MFA Directing Thesis in April 1995 by the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theater Studies, School of the Arts, Columbia University (OHara vi-vii). Later the play has been produced across the country including at Mark Taper Forum and American Conservatory Theater. The play is also presented by the New York Shakespeare Festival, producer George C. Wolfe, at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. When asked by the interviewer what period of time he would like to be transformed to, Robert OHara replied that he would have like to find himself somewhere in the future. He believes that people there would be as insane as he is. His recommendation for making the theater a more relevant and artistically profound place is simple and straightforward: by doing more plays that reflect the diversity of the society around them regardless of the race of their subscribers (20 Questions for Robert OHara). The theater should not shun problems and issues the society is confronted with, and if one wants to build an artistic home for others then [he/she] must make [these] homes more artistic (20 Questions for Robert OHara). Insurrection: Holding History, similarly to other Robert OHaras works, is the play of the XXI century, with its multi-layer, sophisticated artistic expressionism and popular magical realism that poses important questions without giving unambiguous, straightforward answers and solutions to them. This, however, requires, according to Shelby Jiggets-Tivony, a literary critic who wrote a preface to Robert OHaras book, more bodaciousness on the part of the author, for it is as liberating as it is initially shocking (OHara vi). In the story of the magical coming back to the very nonmagical land of slavery with its harsh realities the author managed to unfold various thematic banners. In some scenes, it is mostly the comedy of the absurd genre. In other scenes OHara exposes his satiric bite, with the humor bearing the bitterness of the cartoonist. Such an approach

to the topic is both understandable and creative, considering that slavery today seems something unreal in its cruelty that is contrary to contemporary perception and required other than realistic, linear manner of artistic treatment. However, OHara managed to weave the horrendous realities of slavery with elements of comedy letting the audience enjoy the music of spirituals and learn the colorful elements of African American culture. The humor of the sitcom kind, most successfully expressed via certain visual touches, for example, the microphone used to address the rebels or the flashlight that is used as whip in the Public Theater production add to the visual appeal and make the play not only instructive but enjoyable as well.

Works Cited 20 Questions for Robert OHara. Theater Communication Group. American Theater. MayJune 2011. Web. 29 June 2012. Carpenter, Faedra C. Robert OHaras Insurrection: Que(e)rying History. Text and Performance Quarterly 23.2 (2003): 186-204. doi:10.1080/1046293032000141365. Print. OHara, Robert. Insurrection: Holding History. New York: Theatre Communication Group, 1999. Print. Robert OHara: In Search of the Artistic Home. Howl Round. A Journal of the Theater Commons. 28 February 2012. Web. 29 June 2012.