Conquer or Die

Staging Circum-Atlantic Revolt in Polly and Three-Finger'd Jack

Bibliographic Data

ID4552503
AuthorsPeter P Reed, Peter Reed (0009-0009-0924-6182, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume59
Issue2
Pages241-258
Publication date2007-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTheatre Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0192-2882 • E-ISSN: 1086-332X
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/tj.2007.0098
OpenAlexW2024979412
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited21

The 1777 resurrection of John Gay's Polly represents a watershed moment in the stage history of Atlantic underclasses: its first self-conscious act of racial mimicry. This self-reflexive blackface also activated a cohort of lower-class types; Polly marks class with theatrical blackness. John Fawcett's 1800 pantomime Obi, or, Three-Finger'd Jack, revives such resistant characters, enacting new forms of social disorder and performing another version of the multiracial underclass crew Marx would name the "lumpenproletariat." Together, Polly and Three-Finger'd Jack imagine the convergence of race and class identity in the Caribbean. Most importantly, however, they imagine such rogues, with their tendencies to don burnt-cork makeup and perform piracy and banditry, as already theatrical. These plays and their rogue antiheroes performed threats to the existing social order, becoming a charismatic and popular part of the Atlantic theatre culture

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Blackface · Hollywood · Identity (music · Masculinity · Sociology · Visual arts · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Gender Studies · History · Philippine History and Culture · Theater, Performance, and Music History

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