Stage Excerpt: We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915

Elsewhere in this issue of The Appendix, we interview the writer Jackie Sibblies Drury about her play We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915, which earned glowing reviews during its recent runs in Chicago and New York. Its plot is this: six black and white American actors attempt to make their own play about the imperial German genocide of the Herero people of South West Africa in the late nineteenth, early twentieth century. After a rapid-fire, surprisingly slapstick overview of the history, the play’s main body follows the well-meaning but often egotistical actors as they chafe at the primary source that they hoped might inspire their work: a cache of letters sent home by German soldiers.

It does not go well.

Sibblies Drury shared an excerpt of the play with The Appendix. In these two scenes, the actors attempt to adapt one of those letters—but then fight about it. The play barrels headlong to a fierce and upsetting conclusion, but in this excerpt, at least, tempers are not so frayed that the play isn’t still bitingly funny. A challenging balance of social criticism, racial violence, and inquiry into how deeply we can empathize with the dead, We Are Proud to Present is the breakout contribution of a new voice in American theater. We are grateful to Sibblies Drury for the chance to introduce it to The Appendix’s readers.

In other words, we are proud to present it.


Characters:

Actor 6 / Black Woman
Actor 1 / White Man
Actor 2 / Black Man
Actor 3 / Another White Man
Actor 4 / Another Black Man
Actor 5 / Sarah
All are young, somewhere in their 20’s, ish, and they should seem young, open, skilled, playful, and perhaps, at times, a little foolish.


Scene: Presentation [1896]

WHITE MAN and SARAH are dominant in the presentation.
The letter is filled with Romance and Yearning.
There might be some distant representation of African bodies … but the love is fore grounded.

WHITE MAN
Dear Sarah.
We awoke before dawn again this morning. And walked, and walked,
And walked until long after dark.
We walk so much even when I sleep
I dream of walking in the heat.
There is so much heat here Sarah.

I saw steam rising from the shoulders of the man in front of me.
It is so hot our very sweat is wrested from our bodies.
I have never experienced such thirst as this.
Dear Sarah, I beg you
for a picture, of you in our garden,
for a picture of you in a cool and living place.
I will hold your picture to my lips and feel refreshed.


Scene: Process

ACTOR 4
Can I ask a question?

ACTOR 6
What is it?

ACTOR 2
Are we just going to sit here and watch some white people fall in love all day?

ACTOR 4
I wasn’t going to put it like that—

ACTOR 2
Where are all the Africans?

ACTOR 1
We’re just reading the letters.
I’m sure we’ll find something that has some more context.

ACTOR 2
I think we should see some Africans in Africa.

ACTOR 1
And I think we have to stick with what we have access to.

ACTOR 2
No no no. This is some
Out-of-Africa-African-Queen-bullshit y’all are pulling right here, OK?
If we are in Africa, I want to see some black people.

ACTOR 6
He’s right. We have to see more of the Herero.

ACTOR 4
That’s all I was trying to say.

ACTOR 6
We need to see what—

ACTOR 4
We need to see Africa.

ACTOR 2
That’s what I’m talking about.

ACTOR 4
You know? These dusty old letters talking about this dusty old place—

ACTOR 2
Yes.

ACTOR 4
I want to see the live Africa.

ACTOR 2
Preach.

ACTOR 4
The Africa that’s lush—

ACTOR 2
Um—

ACTOR 4
The Africa that’s green

ACTOR 2
Well—

ACTOR 4
With fruit dripping from trees—

ACTOR 6
Dig into it.

ACTOR 2
But the desert—

ACTOR 4
Gold pushing its way out of the ground—

ACTOR 2
That’s not—

ACTOR 6
(to ACTOR 2)
Shh—

ACTOR 4
And so many animals—

ACTOR 6
Yes.

ACTOR 4
Monkeys—

ACTOR 6
Yes.

ACTOR 4
Gibbons—

ACTOR 6
Yes.

ACTOR 4
Elephants and giant snakes—

ACTOR 6
Stick with it.

ACTOR 4/ANOTHER BLACK MAN
And I hunt them.

ACTOR 4 adopts an “African” accent. It’s not ok.

ANOTHER BLACK MAN
I hunt de lion. I hunt de jagua. I hunt de tiegah.

ACTOR 2
But—

ACTOR 3, 5, 6
Shhh.

ANOTHER BLACK MAN
When I kill a tiegah I eat de heart of the animal while it beats.

“African” Drums begins, slowly, provided by ACTOR 6.
The beat is felt in a count of 7
(1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3)

ANOTHER BLACK MAN
I push my hands inside the animal, breaking
apart bone and sinew, until I reach the heart
and I pull it toward my heart, feeling
the veins stretch and snap, wiping
spurts of blood from my face.

By now, ACTORS 1 & 3 & 5, have found the beat also.
Now it starts to grow.

ANOTHER BLACK MAN
I barely have to chew, the heart is tender.
I pull a fang from the animal’s mouth and add it to my necklace of teeth – another kill,
another point of pride,
another day I provide for my family.
My family—we feast on the best parts of the meat,
we feast, and women ululate

ACTOR 5 ululates.

ANOTHER BLACK MAN
and dance with naked breasts

ACTOR 5 performs “African” Dance. Others join.

ANOTHER BLACK MAN
in front of our fire.
And they are all my wives, the women are all my wives
and I take two of them to my bed,
and I fuck both of the wives I took to bed
and I make them both pregnant because we are all as dark and fertile as African jungle soil.

“African” Dance and Drumming and joy. ACTOR 2 breaks in:

ACTOR 2
Y’all need to stop.

ANOTHER BLACK MAN
I have many children. Many Many Children.

ACTOR 2
For real. Just stop.

ACTOR 5
Keep going!

ANOTHER BLACK MAN
Many children that I love.

ACTOR 2
STOP.

They stop.

ACTOR 2
This isn’t that kind of Africa.
Ok?
We already Wikipediaed this.

ACTOR 5
Yeah, but—

ACTOR 2
We know it’s like desert: dry, hot, arid, barren.
What’s he talking about tigers and palm trees

ACTOR 4
I was making the part my own.

ACTOR 2
Oh come on.

ACTOR 5
You don’t want us to do anything.

ACTOR 2
You can’t make the part your own so much that you ignore what’s actually there.

ACTOR 1
That’s not what he’s saying.

ACTOR 2
Oh really?

ACTOR 1
It’s not.

ACTOR 2
So why don’t you tell me what he’s saying.

ACTOR 5
Why are you always so angry all the time?

ACTOR 2
I know you didn’t.

ACTOR 5
What?

ACTOR 4
Guys I know that I don’t know everything about the Herero but—
Will you listen? We have to start somewhere.

ACTOR 2
So start by being black.

Beat.