Oberlin’s production of Haymarket, a new folk musical, ran in Warner Main Friday through Sunday this past week, 140 years after the Haymarket Affair in Chicago. Alex Higgin-Houser, who wrote the musical’s book and lyrics, and David Kornfeld, who composed the score, worked with director and Visiting Professor of Theater Katy Early, OC ’16, and students to redevelop the show after its 2016 debut.
The show follows the events of the 1886 labor movement, which began as peaceful strikes by workers with the goal of an eight-hour workday. March leaders Albert and Lucy Parsons were at the center, embodying the movement’s differing opinions on whether workers should take up arms. As a woman of color Lucy was a radical changemaker for her time, and fought hard to be a figurehead of the movement.
The timing of the show was poetic, opening on May Day. The show’s first scene, in fact, takes place during Chicago’s first May Day Labor Parade. From start to curtains, Haymarket was explicit about its political weight.
Lucy Parsons, played by Conservatory second-year Jazmin Rhodes, acted as a quasi-narrator, guiding viewers through the events of the show. She began by opening her banjo case, which was painted with Woody Guthrie’s iconic phrase “THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS.” Garnering some laughs from the audience, this note connected the events depicted in the production to the present day.
The show was an active process all the way until opening; Rhodes and Conservatory second-year Tyler Sanderlin, who played Albert Parsons, expressed how much they learned from this experience.
“Our general perception in the modern lens of ‘What is a riot?’ and ‘What is protest?’ has changed so much just in the eight years since they last staged it,” Sanderlin said. “We wanted to be able to take that new lens and rework the show.”
Notably, Haymarket does not give a definitive answer to the question it raises of what the “right” way to protest is, instead leaving this conversation alive and able to infiltrate today’s political and economic environment.
The show was a true interdepartmental production, featuring students from both College and Conservatory in its cast and crew. Though experience was varied — some students came from strong music theater backgrounds, while for others, Haymarket was their first musical performance — these distinctions were ultimately meaningless when it came to the sound of the show.
Haymarket punctuated musical numbers with dates, keeping viewers chronologically oriented and reminding them that it is a historically driven piece. Scenes felt fresh and alive but echoed the heaviness of truth and personhood behind each character and event. Multiple scenes had dialogue or speeches pulled directly from historical documentation. Even the program for the show was designed to mimic street literature promoting the cause, which invited workers to the mass meeting in the square.
During the climax of the show, four of the eight anarchist leaders were convicted of conspiracy for the Haymarket bombing and hanged: Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, and George Engel. Louis Lingg committed suicide shortly before his execution date. In an emotional moment, Fischer, Spies, and Engel gave up their time to say their last words to Albert, who hoped to deliver a final message turning the movement over to Lucy. Sadly, Albert was cut off from speaking, only getting out “Let the voice of the people be heard!” Their deaths were staged with the use of their instruments. Each man slowly wrapped a black cord around their instrument’s neck, which was then hoisted up above them. It was solemn and powerful, and was followed by a scene that used the instrument cases as caskets. While this staging enabled the inclusion of this typically graphic scene, it also allowed the symbolic passing of the voice of the movement to become tangible, as the instruments were handed to the wives of those executed.
The most potent moment of the production was Lucy’s speech in the “Homecoming / Finale” number. The script consisted of excerpts from the actual eulogy read by Lucy at the men’s burial. The widows had been told that they could not have a true funeral or gathering of any kind for fear of another protest. There was a heartbreaking heaviness. All eyes were on Rhodes as she spoke out Lucy’s words: “Although all that is mortal of you is laid beneath that beautiful monument … you are not dead. You are just beginning to live in the hearts of all true lovers of liberty.”
They marched from the burial grounds, and it was larger than even the May Day parade, churning hope and power. At the very end of the show, the cast led the audience in a collective singing of “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie. It is this collectivism that is the heart of Haymarket.
Rhodes found much of herself in Lucy and plans to carry her message forward.
“I hope that people who saw and were affected by [Haymarket] use it in Lucy’s terms — not to mourn, but to organize,” she said. “[I hope they] use it as a call to action … to show up in their towns, in their colleges, and their places of work, and … make their voices heard.”
