Suffrage / Jenifer Nii / 2013
It is absolutely wild to me that a non-Mormon Asian woman who didn’t even grow up in Utah managed to write one of the strongest, most compassionate portrayals I’ve ever seen of polygamist women. While Utah culture paints polygamists as backward outcasts, while the LDS church dodges and distorts its polygamist history, frequently throwing once-faithful LDS polygamists under the bus, Jenifer Nii manages to dramatize the tensions and tenderness between sister wives at a critical point in history. Unfolding during the suffragist movement, during Utah’s vying for statehood, and most significantly during the LDS church’s transition from a polygamist to sort of monogamous culture, SUFFRAGE tells the story of Ruth and Frances.
Ruth, in her 20s, is the 4th wife in the family. A natural outspoken leader she butts heads not only with the patriarchal culture of Utah and the US at large, but also with Frances, the second wife of the family, who is in her late 30s it seems. Frances and Ruth function as perfect foils. While Ruth spends her time busy politically organizing and fighting for women’s rights, Frances troubles herself most over the well-being of her family, criticizing Ruth’s idealism in favor of practicality—and survival. Without Frances, the children would have likely starved. While contemporary culture would likely view polygamous women with the same myopic lens it views hijabi women, SUFFRAGE does a great job of illustrating the power these women had and how they chose to wield it.
A two-person play, I was stunned by Nii’s ability to craft archaic dialogue so seamlessly. The language bounces like it’s alive, moving the plot forward. Never does it feel like a stale philosophical conversation between two opposed concepts. Every word builds the tension, reveals an important piece of the character. Craft-wise, I was most impressed and engulfed by the parallel scenes Nii constructed. That is, two separate scenes Ruth and Frances act out simultaneously. The dialogue from the scenes would intermix, like a contrapuntal, creating powerful juxtapositions and connections in distinct narratives. These juxtaposition helped build the tension between the two characters, between their religion, and between men and women.
If you’re interested in viewing an excellent live reading of the play, along with a Q&A with the author, the original cast, and historian Lindsay Hansen Park, please follow this link.
I recommend this play to anyone interested in Mormonism, Asian American literature, minimalistic theatre, feminism, monologues, and Utah history.