Julia Wolfe is premiering her 2009 folklore drama Steel Hammer at BAM from December 2-6. The work centers around John Henry and is part of 2015's Next Wave Festival.
Wolfe has an uncanny ability to channel Appalachian folk music in a way that old folkies could not. The story of John Henry is not anything uncommon--actually, it's been championed by the likes of Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and Woody Guthrie through song. However, this unique staging of the tale is reported to be particularly intricate.
John Henry was a steel-driving railroad worker who challenged a steam drill to a contest of labor. As legend has it, John Henry beat the steam drill and died shortly thereafter from the strain, hammer-in-hand.
The tale can be tuned to fit a myriad of themes, such as one that boasts the power of man and protecting the little guy when the big "machine" tries to replace the merits of manual labor. For Guthrie, it was the union that helped convince workers to unionize against their bosses who overworked and underpaid them.
This version brings that version of the John Henry myth to the stage and has reinvented it as a music drama to be performed.
The production is scored for three female vocals and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. It is in collaboration with director Anne Bogart ad the SITI Company. It builds off of over 200 different versions of the classic legend.
According to the BAM website:
"Playwrights Kia Corthron, Will Power, Carl Hancock Rux, and Regina Taylor provide additional texts as three singers and the Bang on a Can All-Stars-fortified with banjo, bones, mountain dulcimer, and other Appalachian instruments-give the folk hero a newfangled song for a new century."
The new production should be a interesting take on a famous legend. In the meantime, preview Wolfe's Steel Hammer below.
