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4.0 out of 5 stars
Obie Award-winner, one of Lanford Wilson's best plays.,
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This review is from: The Mound Builders. (Paperback)
Winner of the Obie Award in 1975, Lanford Wilson's play details the excavation of Jasker Field by archaeologists as they try to solve some of the mysteries of Native American temple mounds from 700 - 1000 A. D. This is frantic work, as a nearby lake is rising, and a planned interstate, under construction, is scheduled to bury the site. Wilson creates a cauldron of emotions by housing all the principals in a farmhouse belonging to Mr. Jasker, whose son Chad enthusiastically awaits the arrival of the interstate and the expansion of the lake, which will give him valuable "waterfront property."
As traces of civilization are uncovered at the dig, followed soon after by the discovery of artifacts and bones, the tensions inside the house grow. Each of the main characters has problems--a previous emotional breakdown, a pregnancy, the unwanted attentions of Chad Jasker, a divorce and loss of personal direction, alcoholism, irresponsibility, and professional stress--and the viewer cannot help but make comparisons between the seemingly structured lives of the mound builders and the chaos in the lives of their present investigators. The "resolution" to the drama proves to be far more "uncivilized" than anything the early civilization might have contemplated. The intensely confessional atmosphere inside the farmhouse, as the characters reveal their problems and conflicts, requires that actors play their parts with subtlety to avoid stereotyping and melodrama. The weakest character in the play is, unfortunately, the important character of Jean Loggins, gynecologist-wife of one of the lead archaeologists, who tries to help D. K. Erikson, an alcoholic and insecure writer who is the sister of the project director, resting at the farmhouse to "dry out." Loggins, unfortunately, is so fraught with her own problems that it is impossible to imagine her as a hard-driving medical school graduate with a specialty career, and this limits the realism and increases the melodrama. D. K., however, is a tough woman who views life with a cynical realism, and her gradual transition from angry recluse to a more "civilized" persona is a key aspect to the drama. Dealing with the age-old conflict between preservation and progress, which is still at issue thirty years later, Wilson shows that the strong traditions and culture of the mound builders--their civilization--have much of value to offer modern man living in a more multicultural and chaotic world. Mary Whipple
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