Foreskin's Lament
Encyclopedia
- This article refers to a play. For the book by Shalom AuslanderShalom AuslanderShalom Auslander is an American author and essayist. He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Monsey, New York where he describes himself as having been "raised like a veal". His writing style is notable for its Jewish perspective and determinedly negative outlook...
see Foreskin's Lament: A MemoirForeskin's Lament: A MemoirForeskin's Lament: A Memoir is a book by Shalom Auslander. The book chronicles his upbringing as an Orthodox Jew and his efforts to break free from it...
.
Foreskin's Lament is a landmark play in the history of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
theatre. It was the breakthrough play for its writer, Greg McGee
Greg McGee
-Biography:McGee was born in 1950 in the South Island town of Oamaru. In his early 20s McGee was a Junior All Black and an All Black trialist. He graduated from the University of Otago with a law degree in 1972....
, and was initially workshopped at the New Zealand Playwrights' Conference in Wellington in 1980, and has since become a staple of New Zealand theatre. Being produced as it was immediately before and during the social unrest of the 1981 Springbok Tour
1981 Springbok Tour
The 1981 South African rugby union tour of New Zealand was a controversial tour of New Zealand by the South Africa national rugby union team, known as "the Springboks"...
of New Zealand, it hit a nerve with the public and was named Best New Zealand Play of 1981.
The play is a drama set in a rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
changing room after a practice, and at an after-match party. The captain is kicked in the head offstage at the beginning of the first act, and again during the game between acts. He dies in hospital during the second act. The theme is the conflict between fair play and winning at all costs, and the nonconformist lead character Foreskin's struggle to reconcile his university liberal values with those of his rugby-playing conservative mates. The play ends with Foreskin directly addressing the audience in a monologue - or rather interrogation - filled with rugby allusions, questioning their own values, ending with the repeated question, "Whaddarya?" (usually used in New Zealand to question someone's masculinity). Early performances left audiences in stunned silence. In some productions Foreskin undresses during the lament and finishes nude.
In New Zealand a rugby player is an everyman, and the game and play present a model of society. Set in 1976, it looks forward to the 1981 Springbok Tour. It has been suggested the misnamed character "Clean" was based on Robert Muldoon
Robert Muldoon
Sir Robert David "Rob" Muldoon, GCMG, CH served as the 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1975 to 1984, as leader of the governing National Party. Muldoon had been a prominent member of the National party and MP for the Tamaki electorate for some years prior to becoming leader of the party...
. The script was updated after the 1981 tour and was later heavily revised by the author for filming as Skin and Bones.