Re-Writing the Fences Play - Essay Example

Re-writing "Scene 2.4” From Fences Two months later. Lyons enters the house from the streets. He knocks at thedoor and calls. LYON: Rose, Pop!!! Hey anybody there! (Knocks harder at the door) ROSE: [from inside the house] Hey! Who’s there? And for God’s sake stop yelling you gonna my daughter [referring to Raynell] LYON: Hey what’s up Rose? Am looking for Pop, he around? Got to give him back his cash he loaned me. ROSE: [Coming around from the bedrooms] Hey Lyon, didn’t realize it was you. You got so much noise might have woken up your sister LYON: [Seems taken back by the title placed on Raynell] Uhm…, sorry about that, didn’t realize she was here. Say, where’s the old man? Am in a rush. Got to pick up Bonnie from her mother’s house. ROSE: [Picks up on the way he avoids calling Raynell his sister] Say, your Pop ain’t home but he go be around somewhere, you could wait for him to come back. I have some tea cooking. Can I make you a cup? LYON: Nah, I have to get going [places twenty-five dollars on the table and starts for the door] tell him I came by and thanks again. ROSE: Why the rush Lyon, atleast stay for the tea. [Almost on cue, Cory walks from the back of the house] LYON: Hey, man what’s up? Didn’t Rose had you in the house as well. CORY: Am good man, just got back you know, trying to hustle up some job. LYON: Yeah, yeah that’s tough. By the way man, am sorry I didn’t attend your graduation. I was tied on some gig, you feel? [Taps Cory on the shoulder] Though man, am on the rush, gotta hit it. CORY: I feel. See, why don’t you stay for some tea? Mama got some heating up [points to the kitchen] ROSE: Uh, just what I’d suggested. Come on Lyon just a sip then you’ll be on your way. LYON: Okay, okay just a quick sip then am out of here Bonnies waiting you knows. [Rose rushes to the kitchen to fetch the tea, comes back a minute later, and sets the cups that she fills up] ROSE : Here you go Lyon [sets a cup infront of him], Cory [moves to serve Cory but he meets her halfway with a smile] [Lyon and Cory uniformly thank Rose] LYON: Say, Cory my man, why don’t you get Pop to hook you up with something? He knows people who could fix you. CORY: Sure, am open now could take anything up just to set a foot in the world and make something of myself. LYON: Come on man, don’t tell me you one of those sissy dudes who’d do anything for a job. CORY: Nah, am just realistic. See, if I try and find a big job, that ain’t gonna happen and we both know it. However, if I start out small time, I could rise up you know, times have changed. Though it seems bad, the colored folk are being accepted though it a journey I know. LYON: That’s some good talk but you got to follow your passion, look at me am doing great. [Points at the twenty-five dollars Rose has moved out of the way for their small talk] ROSE: Lyon, I have been meaning to ask you, what you up to these days? It seems to be working great. LYON: [uncomfortable at the direction the talk is taking] It’s my music, finally started to show progress. Some producer saw me on stage at my regular club say I got talent. Next thing you know am off making something for myself. CROY: Who is the producer? I happen to know most of them operating in this region. By name of course ROSE: Yeah, who is it? [Lyon seems thoroughly uncomfortable] LYON: No need you wouldn’t know him CORY: [about to comment] LYON: Get off my case man [gets up and puts a smile on] Anyway man, am just jammed gotta pick up Rose and all. [To Rose] Am sorry I couldn‘t finish your tea but am gonna see you some other time. [Rose and Cory eye each other but nod anyway] ROSE: Okay Lyon we’ll see you next time take care. CORY: Later man LYON: [as an afterthought] By the Cory talk to Pop about that job thing, am sure he can help. [Lyon rushes out before Cory has time to respond] [Rose and Cory look at each other again but don’t voice their shared thoughts about Lyons] CORY: Later ma. [He exits through the back door] [Rose nods and looks to clean up the table. But there is worry written all over her face] Fences is a play that focuses deeply on relationships that are strained by personal decisions and by the times they are in. the discrimination of the colored community is clearly highlighted as a theme in the play and it is portrayed as having a major role in the lives of the characters. Troy, the main character in the play, makes many mistakes in his lifetime and has learnt to live with the old ones he made as a youth. In so doing, he is able to create a family, which is relatively happy and gets a stable job. These and the friendship he has with his workmates give him something to be thankful about. The event that occurs towards the closing of the climax of the play exposes the stained relationship existing between the members of his family. Rose and Lyon have such a relationship, which is made even more difficult by introduction of Raynell in the family. Lyon and Cory are okay with each other, but there is a barrier between them where Lyon expresses a form of crippled thinking and his younger brother is more focused and sharp. In this particular instance, Lyon expresses his regard for his father when he refers his brother to their father in respect to finding a job. In this manner, he indirectly accepts that he is the one at odds with his father because he had refused an offer for a job by him. Lyon is the main focus of the act and he is exposed as having been involved with an incident he is ashamed of. He lies to his family on the source of the money he reinstates to his father knowing that if he disclosed the truth, he would be rejected. This instance goes further to show that the stereotypic thoughts of colored folks all being involved in criminal activity in some way is wrong. Through the short conversation that the three had, a host of themes are strengthened and new ones introduced. My Intent was based on bringing Lyon out o talk about his life and view of it, which had been limited in the play. I believed that through him, a window would show the extent at which this family is dysfunctional. Letting Cory and Rose interrogate him, they found closure about his whereabouts during the time he was away. In addition, he expresses his view about work and life in general allowing Cory to do the same in a more thoughtful fashion. Work Cited Wilson, August. (1988) Fences. New York: Penguin,. Print. Read More