Insurrection: Holding History

By Robert O'Hara

Book Overview

THE STORY: INSURRECTION: HOLDING HISTORY is a wild, thrilling ride down one of history's darkest, scariest corridors. Robert O'Hara employs a language of wicked wit, of deliberate and immensely provocative outrageousness to speak to a vast, bloody

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822217716
• ISBN13: 9780822217718
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Ingram
• Length: 108 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 19.7" x 13.3" x 13.3"

Customer Reviews

Enjoyed it!

This recommendation came by way of a book club member and I must admit that this is the first play that I've read since high school. The play opens with the celebration of the 189th birthday of T.J., a former slave who has managed to continue living - or rather breathing - through the twenty-first century. Told in two levels of reality, "Insurrection: Holding History" physically transports some characters - while mentally confining others - to the period of the Nat Turner slave rebellions. Ron is T.J.'s great-great-grandson and a graduate student writing a thesis on the Nat Turner rebellions. T.J., through his dead Mutha, shares the history of the rebellion with Ron and ultimately takes him back to the day before the actual insurrection occurs. While on the slave plantation, Ron gets a first hand view of what the slaves were thinking and planning right up to the point of the massacres. Having studied the Turner rebellion and knowing its outcome, Ron attempts to change history and save the life of a new found love by insisting that Nat Turner better plan his attack. Not trusting the free man from the North or his knowledge derived from a book written by a white man, the rebellion goes on as planned and history remains unchanged. As noted earlier, this is the first play that I've read since high school so I don't know that I was appreciating it fully while reading it. Being a huge fan of the novel, I'm quite familiar with its construction and with what is required to make them work. While I lack that level of knowledge about plays, I could fully appreciate the playwright's use of intersecting realities to explore what happened then within the context of what is happening now relative to slavery and the African American experience. I also loved the way O'Hara transported Ron and T.J. back to the plantation; it was perfect use of one of my favorite novels/films and that intersection of fictional genre - play/novel/film - allowed me to better visualize the scene in the play. Overall, I found "Insurrection: Holding History" engaging, funny and insightful. I hope to see the play performed one day because for this reader, I'd still prefer to see a play and read a novel. Enjoy!

Thought provoking!

Mr. O'Hara's clever use of literary techniques takes the reader on a spell-binding journey through the exploration of past and current social issues.

Wow! What a play!

This play made me sit up and listen to the voice of the modern african american experience. I would recommend it to anyone interested in theater, history and and some wacky singing and dancing.