April 19, 2010
My father takes me into the back yard to tell me something very important. He speaks haltingly, struggling to find the right words.
"What is it?" I ask him.
The man who responds is Morgan Freeman, and yet he now speaks with such authority, I know it is still my father.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you this before, I should have, but...your mother is still alive."
He indicates a short, round, dark skinned woman in the next yard. She is encircled by young boys as she plays a ceremonial drum and chants. The sounds are foreign to my ear and seem to be mostly long stretches of vowels. Somehow, I understand that she is repeating her name over and over again.
"Esther Rolle? My mother is Esther Rolle?"
"Yes," Morgan tells me, "but to hear her name aloud invites bad things."
And how; the group of young boys has now encircled Morgan. They throw rubber tires at him, knocking his body about until he can no longer defend himself. Seemingly resigned to his fate, he sinks into the ground and is swallowed up by the earth.
*******
Leaving aside the family drama, the thing that I find interesting about the dream is this:
In 1936 twenty-one year old Orson Welles directed a production of Macbeth set in Haiti for the Negro Theatre Unit of the Federal Theatre Project. Welles's first great success, the production was commonly referred to as Voodoo Macbeth. In 1977 the production was revived by the Henry Street Settlement's New Federal Theatre starring Esther Rolle as Lady Macbeth. And of course "Macbeth" is the word that superstitious theatre folk believe invites bad luck.
My father takes me into the back yard to tell me something very important. He speaks haltingly, struggling to find the right words.
"What is it?" I ask him.
The man who responds is Morgan Freeman, and yet he now speaks with such authority, I know it is still my father.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you this before, I should have, but...your mother is still alive."
He indicates a short, round, dark skinned woman in the next yard. She is encircled by young boys as she plays a ceremonial drum and chants. The sounds are foreign to my ear and seem to be mostly long stretches of vowels. Somehow, I understand that she is repeating her name over and over again.
"Esther Rolle? My mother is Esther Rolle?"
"Yes," Morgan tells me, "but to hear her name aloud invites bad things."
And how; the group of young boys has now encircled Morgan. They throw rubber tires at him, knocking his body about until he can no longer defend himself. Seemingly resigned to his fate, he sinks into the ground and is swallowed up by the earth.
*******
Leaving aside the family drama, the thing that I find interesting about the dream is this:
In 1936 twenty-one year old Orson Welles directed a production of Macbeth set in Haiti for the Negro Theatre Unit of the Federal Theatre Project. Welles's first great success, the production was commonly referred to as Voodoo Macbeth. In 1977 the production was revived by the Henry Street Settlement's New Federal Theatre starring Esther Rolle as Lady Macbeth. And of course "Macbeth" is the word that superstitious theatre folk believe invites bad luck.
