The Jacksonian

by Beth Henley

Set in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1964, The Jacksonian tells the story of respectable dentist Bill Perch, who moves into the seedy Jacksonian Motel after his wife kicks him out. His downward spiral is punctuated by encounters with his teenage daughter, a gold-digging motel employee, a treacherous bartender and his now estranged wife. Revolving around the night of a murder, The Jacksonian unearths the eerie tensions and madness in a town poisoned by racism.

(from Broadway.com)

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Elizabeth Becker "Beth" Henley is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actress. Her play Crimes of the Heart won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 1981 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play, and a nomination for a Tony Award.

Reviews

[Callum Morris-Horne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pulpy Southern Gothic drama set in the titular motel in Mississippi in 1964. A dentist, Bill Perch, moves into this seedy establishment after his marriage fails and is soon enmeshed in the moral decay and deviance that festers there. While I’m not sure whether the non-linear chronology added much to the narrative (maybe this would be different in performance, rather than on the page), the play engrossed with its grotesquerie and its social conscience, casting its critical eye over the process of desegregation.

[Yourfiendmrjones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one I'll have to read again. A play written by a Mississippi playwright who I associate with a done-to-death community theater comedy (Crimes of the Heart) that takes tropes of film noir, coming-of-age and civil rights-era Deep South melodrama and mixes them together in a pestle and mortar fashion with the result feeling like Scout Finch's nightmare.

And maybe that's the takeaway. Atticus turned inside out. Boo's a sword-swallowing pedophile bartender. There is no Jem. The mom didn't die, she went crazy from an unnecessary hysterectomy.

It'd be tough to stage though. I would be interested to see how other productions managed the time shifts in the story.

[Tom Elliott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one may have lost something on the page that was more evident in performance. Or not.

[Caroline May · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good southern gothic piece - as a southerner I can attest to the dichotomy between the outward hospitality and charm and the sinister history that lies beneath in the deep south. The complacency runs DEEP. I did really like Rosy's visualization she gives us on the blood that permeates the Mississippi soil, and how despite the horrors, sometimes you just push it all back down and don't let it show on the surface. I'm unsure if having the story be told non-lineally actually serves the narrative or if it's just there to be there. Maybe seeing it staged would change my opinion or give me a better idea. This might be a reach, but something about Fred being the actual killer of the lady from the filling station, and not the only black man in the vicinity at the time like Eva believes unwaveringly, kind of gives something like...no matter what white extremists in the south believe about black americans, our own history of extreme reactionism and racism are much more evil than the imaginary villain we've created out of our black neighbors. I'm not sure how to word that better, but my point stands. In addition, our main character (and his wife, to an extent) represent the complacency of white people who claim that they're not racist, that they're allies, but they're still complacent with the institutional racism going on around them - Bill is still taking money from his KKK father, right? This is just what I got from it

[Gianna Mosser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure - another NUP publication. Beth Henley brings the Gothic tradition into confrontation of itself. Though I read this playscript in an hour before boarding a plane, it stayed with me for many days after. The point of view is excellently scattered, and the question of who's version of hell you are witnessing never gets fully resolved.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's been awhile since I read "Crimes of the Heart", but I think Henley tops it with this play!

[Joseph Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid writing, very dramatic. I'd really like to see this on its feet, I think it would make a great show.

[Pgregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Beth Henley theatrical sensibility is like no other.

[Nick K · Rating 2 out of 5]

I REALLY wanted to like this script as it is my kind of play- pitch black humor. But the characters are one dimensional and the plot kind of falls apart.