Oroonoko: A Play

by Thomas Southerne, David Stuart Rodes (Editor), Maximillian E. Novak (Editor)

The two plots of this tragicomedy concern a black prince sold into slavery and two white women who are husband-hunting in Surinam. Through a discussion of the status of women in the period and of attitudes towards slavery, the editors demonstrated Southerne's complex attempt to explore a parallel between the conditions of slaves and women in contemporary society. They also consider the play in terms of Southerne's high Tory politics and in its own rights as effective drama. Based on a collection of seven editions published within Southerne's life-time, this modern edition includes a section on stage history, with an account of revisions and adaptations, and a detailed comparison between the play and its source in Aphra Behn's novella of the same name.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Classics, School, 18th Century, Fiction, British Literature

143 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1696

Reviews

[Madeline · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's comforting to know that terrible adaptations of novels were happening long before Hollywood even existed. If Thomas Southerne were alive today, I imagine that's exactly where he'd be working, and the conversations he had with his assistant wouldn't be much different.

For example, here's how I imagine the planning process went when Southerne decided to adapt Aphra Behn's novel Oroonoko for the stage:

SOUTHERNE: Aphra, sweetheart, good news! I decided to make your novel super famous by rewriting it as a play! You're gonna have your name in lights, baby.
BEHN: Great! Although I'm kind already famous in my own right...
SOUTHERNE: Fantastic. Okay, so this story of yours - I love it. African prince loses his only love, gets sold into slavery, finds his wife again and is ready to be happy, but to save his wife and future child he decides to lead a rebellion, which ends in him sacrificing his wife and then dying a hero. Amazing stuff, the audience is gonna eat it up. I just want to make a few teeny changes.
BEHN: Okay...such as?
SOUTHERNE: Well, first, I don't think audiences are gonna be interested in just this story, you know? We gotta have subplots! So in the play there's gonna be these two sisters who are in Surinam to find husbands, right, except one of them is dressed as a man! You heard of Shakespeare?
BEHN: Yes.
SOUTHERNE: Well, he knocked em dead with the crossdressing and we're going to do the same. Anyway, so these two sisters are looking for husbands, and the one dressed as a man marries this rich widow and convinces her to give her all her gold, and then she'll reveal that she's a woman, and marry another guy. Also she marries her sister off to some guy she hates, because ladies need husbands, am I right?
BEHN: I'm sorry, what does this all have to do with Oroonoko?
SOUTHERNE: The sisters meet him once, and then they vouch for him when he gets manipulated into starting the rebellion -
BEHN: Wait, what?
SOUTHERNE: Yeah, we can't have Oroonoko decide to rebel on his own, that's too scary. He has to be convinced to do it by someone else. You saw Othello, right? I'm basically the new Shakespeare, here.
BEHN: Um...
SOUTHERNE: Also, the Imoinda chick - you say in the book that she's really hot, right, so obviously she's going to have to be white in the play.
BEHN: WHAT.
SOUTHERNE: Yeah, I'm changing it so Oroonoko's in love with a white chick who was raised in Africa. Blackface makeup is hella expensive, alright?
BEHN: I guess so.
SOUTHERNE: Also, the ending - grisly, sweetie, very grisly. He gets captured and rips out his guts in defiance? We're a long way from being able to pull off those special effects, honey. So instead, we're gonna have Oroonoko surrender -
BEHN: He surrenders?
SOUTHERNE: And in the end he kills the evil governer, and then himself. And then I'll toss in an epilogue about how his actions can be excused because he's a heathen, and that Christians shouldn't do shit like that.
BEHN: Okay, but what about all the stuff in the book about Oroonoko's past in Africa, and the parts that show what a brave and noble person he is? Where's all the white guilt over being his oppressors?
SOUTHERNE: No time! We have to make room for the cross-dressing sisters! They're going to take up at least half the play. Look, baby, I know what gets butts in the seats, and this is it. Leave it to me, Aphra. You're gonna be famous after this!
BEHN: Sigh. Just give me my check, Southerne.
SOUTHERNE: Also we're casting Megan Fox as Imoinda.
BEHN: *facepalm

[Tetiana ☾ · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I have sent his ghost
To be a witness of that happiness
In the next world which he denied us here."

We can see two intertwined storylines in this play, the first one is the story of Oroonoko, the other one is the story of Charlotte, who schemes to find herself and her sister a husband.

2,5 stars

[Alex (Iseultslibrary) · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Read for school)

[Carlos Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an adaptation in the same way that the new Wuthering Heights movie looks to be an “adaptation” so I’m reviewing it as such… keep that in mind

[Kendalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Southerne's play based on the Behn novella. I really enjoyed delving into criticism on this one and I found it really interesting to have the parallel structures of a marriage and slavery plot set up to highlight the issues within each institution.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the assumption that anyone having dug out this play will approach it as an adaptation of, and probably having read, Aphra Behn's short early novel Oroonoko, comparison is the logical place to start: Southerne's play is not quite as interesting, and certainly not as viscerally involving, as its source material, with less colour all round but a tighter chronological and geographical focus. With that out of the way, is it worth reading as a play in its own right? Up to a point. The main plot, that of Oroonoko and the slave revolt that he leads, is pretty well done, involving and thought-provoking almost until the end of the play, where Southerne stumbles twice: first by making his lust-stricken Governor more pantomime villain than vicious sadist; and then, more damagingly, by making the tragic reunion of his noble sufferers, Oroonoko and Imoinda, at least twice as long as it needs to be in an attempt to squeeze every last drop of pathos from their fate. As for the comic sub-plot: although the editors of the Regents Restoration Drama Series edition of Oroonoko make a reasonable case for their thematic relevance, the husband-hunting antics of Charlotte and Lucy Welldon are, at best, a distraction from the main plot until they become rather implausibly caught up in it in Act V. Given the space and energy that Southerne devotes to Oroonoko and Imoinda at the end, it is unsurprising to find that there is little left in the tank for Charlotte, whose breeches to petticoats transformation ends up as little more than a perfunctory footnote. Oroonoko is far from a bad play, and Southerne is a smooth stylist in both verse and prose, but it is hard not to return to the conclusion that Behn's remains the telling of choice of this story.

[Barbara Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Southerne had to tone down the intensity of the Behn version in order to suit the patrons of English theater, that is understandable. However, this really is a terrible adaptation. The original story is turned upside down, making the protagonist seem like a rowdy runaway slave rather than a heroic prince falling to misfortune. Chaotic, abrupt and downright disappointing.

[Chloë Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

for an old ass play? 3.75 stars. abolitionist, interesting lil side plot (i love gaming someone) and much better than the original novel. big fair enjoy even though some phrasing was odd and some characters were off asl. may return to this later in the career. perhaps. it like if you have to read an 18th century play read this one

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

People are way too harsh with this play. It is a solid heroic tragedy. The marriage of the A-plot to the very silly B-plot is really weird, I will admit, and Southerne himself thought as much. But this hardly hampers the tragic aspect of the A-plot.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

like, whatever

[Jordan Cymrot · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Laurel W · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good enough read…the heroic/tragic aspects were done beautifully, but I’m not exactly sure what the Charlotte and Lucia storyline had to do with anything.