Deborah Richards

Working Note

Last One Out is both typical and unique in its representation of my interests and concerns. It is typical in the sense that it reflects an on-going investigation in, what I like to describe as, the “ectopic presence” of the outsider who is out of place in his/her environment. Here the difference lies in the fact that Jane, though foreign, is more at home than the indigenous peoples in Africa. Jane’s initial role in Tarzan, the Ape Man, like any true explorer, is to identify and classify the local people according to the markings on shields and costume designs. This ritual completed, Jane is able to slot herself into the prime position of white lady who adds “color” to the drab African existence of the two white men.

Last One Out is a play, which is part closet drama (to be read), and part performance piece (to be elaborated into action). When I started, I had imagined an open text where the order of scenes and the decisions to perform/read sections would be left to the actor or the reader. Now, I imagine the reader/viewer as a voyeur to the action (and inaction) within the claustrophobic space of the African stage set. What keeps these characters together without the traditional roles of master and slave? The interactions between blacks and whites, like those relationships between the British and the natives in the Tarzn films, are (sado)masochistic, ritualistic and repetitive, and I am not sure what will break these patterns of behavior.

About the hats: I noticed in the film, Tarzan, the Ape Man, that the white men and Jane wore pith helmets—this is not surprising, I know—but when Jane loses her hat she becomes more human/e. Without her hat, she is lost to the jungle’s (dark) influence and to primitive (dark) desires that makes her live in the trees, wear a little loincloth, and reject civilization.

I’m currently doing more research on the history of headwear.

LAST ONE OUT

Last One Out

Characters:

Saidi: Black woman. Dressed niether to impress nor to seduce.

Riano: Black man. Dressed how a black man can. You decide.

Jane: White woman in a white hip slip.

Mr. Parker: Jane’s father, brown enough to be black, in khaki (with-a-long-a)

Harry: Mr. Parker’s business partner white and safari-clad.

Martin: white man, Harry’s old school pal likes the gals. Dressed smart in a safari shorts and jacket.

              /Note: Martin can be excluded, but it would be a shame/

Place:         STUDIO SET OF AFRICAN LOCATION
                      /INTERIOR/

Time:         NOW IN THE IMAGINATION

Preface:
Last One Out is a reading of the particulars (real and imagined)
of the European “explorers” who rarely feel foreign or outlandish
in a new environment.
This “dramatic poem” uses two of the Tarzan films of the
thirties as a base for the rituals of race and sexuality
in the claustrophobic space of the theatre.

Here are some other sources:

Burroughs, Edgar Rice. Tarzan of the Apes. New York: Signet Books, 1990.

Cheyfitz, Eric. The Poetics of Imperialism. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1997.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. ed. Ross C Murphin. Boston/NY: Bedford Books, 1996.

Goldstein, Lawrence. The American at the Movies. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1994.

Concerning Hats. NY: Waring Hat Manufacturing Corp., 1920.

H stands for Hat

THE HATS

Saidi speak the lines speak
Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932)
view review construe what you will 
remote to pause, to fast forward and to slow down. 

MORE VOICES

Harry and Jane shout commands
shout, playing cards.

In the films the Africans usually respond quickly.
{insert film: freeze frame  black man in shorts  bare chest  hat? runs between
them and us  full on never off  a name at least  a gun to shoot
no scary markings}

//: until…

HAT DIRECTIVE 1

Riano speak phrases in order
wearing a baseball hat. The camera on him—
image displayed.

{Synopsis: Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932)
Mr. Parker and his business partner, Harry, come up with a scheme:
1)    make money
2)    leave Africa’s impenetrable blackness[like frightened children].
They desire the riches of the elephants’ graveyard on the Mutia Escarpment.
They have the black men and the white will to succeed.
Before they leave Jane offers a reprieve
white skin among blacks’ backs}

 

 

 

Saidi zoom zooms/ in for body details  filming
next scene, honing Jane sex appeal
cleavage, neck, and mouth.

H stands for Home    

HOME TIME

Jane swing, swing swagger through the others
with heavy trunks—
her trunks. Speak Jane, breathily.

Mr. Parker—plus safari hat—
come forward
map and check the setting.
Riano follow pocketed hands—no hat.
Harry—without hat—follow follow.
Martin—hatless too—follow follow follow everyone.

Parker/map: check fold walk
	Saidi/film: view pause record view  //:

check  //:

Dark Continent;
close around them

SAVAGED DESIRE AND DEATHS

blackness
stretched

HAT EXCHANGE: GIRL GAINED

[Before them stretched the broad Atlantic;
at their backs the Dark Continent;
close around them loomed
the impenetrable blackness of the jungle
(Tarzan of the Apes 152).]

Bio: Deborah Richards was born in London.  She currently lives in Philadelphia, PA, where she is a teacher and performer.  She received her MA from Temple University.

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