The Ohio State Murders by Adrienne Kennedy
"The Ohio State Murders" is a powerful play by Adrienne Kennedy that delves into the complexity of race, trauma, and memory through the lens of its protagonist, Suzanne. Set against the backdrop of Ohio State University from 1949 to 1951, the narrative unfolds in a series of brief scenes, as Suzanne recalls her experiences as a Black student grappling with systemic racism and personal tragedy. The play highlights the emotional and psychological toll of being subjected to both overt and insidious racism, which deeply impacts Suzanne's sense of self and her relationships.
Central to the story is Suzanne's fascination with literature, particularly Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," which serves as a mirror for her own struggles and societal constraints. The narrative takes a dark turn as it reveals the horrific events surrounding the deaths of her twin daughters, a tragedy intertwined with her experiences at the university. The interplay of past and present, along with Suzanne's reflections, invites audiences to confront the harsh realities of her life and the systemic injustices faced by marginalized individuals.
Kennedy's play is not only a poignant exploration of race and identity but also a commentary on the broader societal forces that can lead to personal devastation. The Ohio State Murders ultimately raises questions about memory, accountability, and the legacy of violence, making it a significant work in contemporary American theater.
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The Ohio State Murders by Adrienne Kennedy
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First produced: 1992 (first published, 1992)
Type of work: Play
The Work
The Ohio State Murders was commissioned by the Great Lakes Theater Festival of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1989. It was directed by Gerald Freedman for the Great Lakes Theater Festival’s thirtieth anniversary season as a part of the nonprofit company’s 1992 Adrienne Kennedy Festival. The play is presented in multiple brief scenes filtered through the memory of the present Suzanne, who acts as narrator. From the stacks of the university library, the writer relives the debasing experiences of Suzanne as a college student from 1949 to 1951.
As a black student, Suzanne is the target of insidious, as well as overt, racism critically destructive to her ego identity. She is told that certain streets are regarded as exclusively white and that an English curriculum is considered too difficult for black people to declare as a major course of study; in the face of such racism, Suzanne’s self-concept deteriorates. She becomes uneasy, anxious, and frightened. Even her white dormitory mates seem to her to be capable of racially motivated murder.
Suzanne’s sole source of joy in her freshman year is a required course on the Victorian novel taught by Robert Hampshire, an unemotional white man in his first year of teaching at Ohio State. Fascinated by Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891), Suzanne begins to draw parallels between her life and the successively restrictive, tragic life of Tess. The present Suzanne concludes that Hardy’s fictional universe is one in which characters face destruction because its society forces conformity, thereby suppressing the human spirit.
Jarring these reminiscences are the present Suzanne’s succinct revelations that someone murdered one of her twin daughters, who were conceived with Robert Hampshire during the school’s Christmas break in 1950. Hampshire dismisses the young Suzanne’s announcement that she is pregnant as impossible. Soon after, the dormitory director reveals that she has been secretly searching through Suzanne’s belongings and has read her diary to the dormitory committee. Consequently, Suzanne is expelled from the dormitory and the university as unsuitable. After the birth of her twins, Suzanne returns to Columbus with her daughters to stay in a boardinghouse run by a family friend.
One of the dominant sources of dramatic tension in The Ohio State Murders is the present Suzanne’s achronological commentary, which allows the audience to know more than the young Suzanne does. For example, she is unaware that Hampshire has been following her, and she endures the suspicions of the Columbus police for more than a year without knowing that it is Hampshire who has kidnapped and drowned one of her children.
While Suzanne works at her part-time night job in the law library, Hampshire presents himself at the boardinghouse as a graduate researcher. Once inside, he kills his second twin daughter and himself with a kitchen knife. The present Suzanne describes with horrifying simplicity the months she spent willing herself to die, while the university and her father covered up the true story of the Ohio State murders. Juxtaposed to these revelations is the present Suzanne’s summation that these experiences are the primary source of violent imagery in her writing.
Bibliography
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Betsko, Kathleen, and Rachel Koenig, eds. Interviews with Contemporary Women Playwrights. New York: Beech Tree Books, 1987.
Brown, E. Barnsley. “Passed Over: The Tragic Mulatta and (Dis)Integration of Identity in Adrienne Kennedy’s Plays.” African American Review 35 (Summer, 2001): 281-295.
Bryant-Jackson, Paul K. “Kennedy’s Travelers in the American and African Continuum.” In Black Theatre: Ritual Performance in the Africa Diaspora, edited by Paul Carter Harrison, Victor Leo Walker II, and Gus Edwards. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002.
Bryant-Jackson, Paul K., and Lois More Overbeck, eds. Intersecting Boundaries: The Theatre of Adrienne Kennedy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992.
Diamond, Elin. “Adrienne Kennedy.” In Speaking on Stage: Interviews with Contemporary American Playwrights. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996.
Harrison, Paul C., ed. Totem Voices: Plays from the Black World Repertory. New York: Grove Press, 1988.
Hurley, Erin. “Blackout: Utopian Technologies in Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro.” Modern Drama 47 (Summer, 2004): 200-218.
Kennedy, Adrienne. People Who Led to My Plays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986.
Kintz, Linda. The Subject’s Tragedy: Political Poetics, Feminist Theory, and Drama. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992.
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