Download Well, John Henry said to the captain, “Oh a man ain`t

Well, John Henry said to the captain,
“Oh a man ain’t nothin’ but a man.
’Fore I’d let your steam drill beat me down,
Well, I’ll die with the hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord,
I’ll die with the hammer in my hand.”
Y
Though the tale of John Henry has taken a winding road from its
Appalachian origins to today, Steel Hammer’s lineage is easier to
trace. Before it became a piece for the theatre, Steel Hammer began
its life as an experimental score of the same name, composed by Julia
Wolfe. (The piece was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010.) With
her company, the international experimental music collective Bang
on a Can, Wolfe approached Bogart with this proposal—to turn an
art ballad examining the complicated history of the folk song “John
Henry” into a work of music theatre. Bogart jumped at the chance to
collaborate on this project. “I was intrigued by the John Henry story
traveling over the years and being appropriated in so many different
ways,” she relates. Indeed, the durable folktale has proven fertile
ground for multiple interpretations, including one in particular that
fascinated the director. “The song was used on railroad crews to set
the rhythm of the stinting, when they hoisted the steel hammers,”
Bogart notes, “and it was a reminder to slow down or you’d die. It
was actually more a tool than an entertainment.”
That notion, of a story told not merely to please but for a specific
purpose, inspired the theatrical conceit around which Steel
Hammer is built: a storytelling contest. And to generate an array
of approaches to John Henry’s tale that could fuel this contest,
SITI Company commissioned four playwrights—Kia Corthron,
Will Power, Carl Hancock Rux and Regina Taylor—to author their
unique takes on this American legend. Bogart’s prompt for the
writers was liberatingly simple: What is the story of John Henry in
the way you’d like to tell it? From there, each was free to explore those
aspects of the folktale that attracted them. “The John Henry story is
just about the closest thing we have in America to Greek mythology,”
Will Power explains. “And folktales, like the Greek myths, have all
kinds of entry points.” Power believes this multiplicity of narratives
is actually how traditional lore is designed—and how it speaks for the
culture that produced it. “I think mythology is a collection of stories that
tells the truth of a people,” the playwright continues. “There are all these
different perspectives. And they’re all true.”
As Steel Hammer unfolds, the members of a diverse six-person
ensemble step onto a platform and take turns telling their versions
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PERFORMANCES BEGIN 3.19
ou may have heard the legend of John Henry. It’s the account
of an epically strong, steel drivin’ railroad worker who outhammered a steam engine and lost his life in the process.
It’s a fable pitting the work of human hands against technological
efficiency in a battle of man versus machine. It’s a paean to the
virtues of our everyday toil. Or it’s a cautionary tale about killing
yourself with work. And it’s based on a real man from the 19th
century, or several men…unless, of course, it’s all a myth. In all
of its shifting meanings, this most American of folktales captures
something about our national character. Just what it captures—and
the story we tell about it—comprises the central inquiry of Steel
Hammer, Anne Bogart and SITI Company’s latest project to premiere
in the Humana Festival.
of the story of John Henry, using every means at their disposal to
connect with the audience. Music merges with the spoken word,
woven together by movement, dance, and percussion on multiple
surfaces (including the human body). Humana Festival audiences who
witnessed past SITI Company collaborations such as Cabin Pressure,
bobrauschenbergamerica and Hotel Cassiopeia will be familiar with
the ensemble’s protean and richly textured style of theatre. But for
Bogart, their multidisciplinary approach to Steel Hammer also reflects
how individuals use any available medium to connect with each other,
regardless of how difficult or impoverished their circumstances might
be. “Storytelling is an attempt to signal in the dark to one another, to
communicate through whatever it is you have,” she proposes. “Even
with nothing, you still have something to say; with nothing, you are
making bridges between yourself and others.”
Ultimately, the legend of John Henry does much more than provide
this play with its source material; it also serves as a visceral example of
how storytellers shape narratives to their own ends, be they political,
cultural, or practical. “For me, this project is not about getting to
the absolute truth of this tale,” Bogart offers. “It’s about how we
mold stories for the times we live in.” Steel Hammer investigates our
human need to explain the world through the tales we tell, making
sense of our lives in conversation with each other. “People have this
impulse to get up in front of each other and send out a signal,” the
director concludes. “I guess you could say that’s what theatre is.”
—Steve Moulds