Theatre Survey

In that drama's fourth act, Laura Courtland, locked for her own protection in a railway toolshed, witnesses Snorkey, a one-armed Civil War veteran, bound by the drama's villain to the rails in the path of an approaching express train. Laura Courtland, her axe, and the on-rushing locomotive...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Theatre survey 2013, Vol.54 (3), p.453
Main Author: Mayer, David
Format: Review
Language:English
Subjects:
19th century
Abolition of slavery
Actors
Alcoholism
Audiences
Children
Delirium
Drama
Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865)
Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811-1896)
Theater
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In that drama's fourth act, Laura Courtland, locked for her own protection in a railway toolshed, witnesses Snorkey, a one-armed Civil War veteran, bound by the drama's villain to the rails in the path of an approaching express train. Laura Courtland, her axe, and the on-rushing locomotive (Chapter 4); the quadroon Eliza, in Uncle Tom's Cabin, fleeing with her child from slave catchers and their bloodhounds across the broken ice floes of the Ohio River to the safety of the northern states (Chapter 3); and the spectacle of the raving drunkard, the monster at the family hearth, performed by male actors, some of them reformed (or only intermittently reformed) alcoholics, each acting the paroxysms and hallucinations of delirium tremens, and seeking to dissuade theatre patrons from strong drink (Chapter 2). Eliza and her husband George would thus have been read as thieves by rural and regional audiences, but less so by the abolitionist-leaning audiences of New York State who were the play's primary witnesses (90-1).
ISSN:0040-5574
1475-4533
DOI:10.1017/S0040557413000355