About Jud in Oklahoma! (Daniel Fishâs Revival)
This is mostly going to be about Jud and his relationship to the other characters, not a piece about Laurey and Curly or whatever. Art is subjective. Once we see the show performed, itâs no longer in the artists hands but in the hands of the viewers. If you interpret this a different way fine, but donât go clowning on my post, send me an ask instead and Iâll be more than okay with talking about it.Â
Also while reading this post, do not let it be lost to you that Laurey is played exclusively in this revival by black women, and how that affects our perception of her interactions with these white characters.Â
***TW: sexual assault, murder, stalking, gun violence, blood***
I know Iâve gotten some asks about my thoughts on Jud so here they are! I know a majority of you have not seen this particular revival, so I wanted to make sure that I talked about it as best as I can, with all of the triggering stuff in it. I want you all to be prepared when you go see the show.Â
I absolutely think that Patrick and his portrayal of Jud is the best out there, because he doesnât play him off as some airhead farmer like whatâs usually done. They give him so much more depth, understanding, and motivation to his character in this rendition through direction, staging, and acting choices than any Iâve ever seen before. I really could not believe the fact that Patrick wasnât nominated for featured because he sure did deserve it!
Jud here is a metaphor for an outsider a community tries to create, because heâs not like them, heâs not clean, he keeps to himself, and some of the actors even refer to him having a sort of mental illness. Outside of his interactions with Laurey, I would sympathize with him, but thatâs not the case, and this makes for an extraordinarily complex character!
So if you donât know the plot of Oklahoma!, it can be summed up plainly in Jud versus Curly for Laureyâs affection (but of course itâs waaay more complicated than that). Curly is mad that Laurey is going to the box social with Jud instead of him, so he antagonizes Jud every time they have a scene together. One of the most profound scenes is the âsmokehouse scene,â where Curly tells Jud to kill himself. Yes this is pulled exactly from the original 1943 script. I couldnât believe it either because this scene is always played off as a joke, but here in the darkness with their faces projected on the screen, we really get the full intention behind the words.
âPore Jud is Deadâ is absolutely heartbreaking. Because we hear Jud basically agreeing that no one cares for him or has any interest in him as a person, that only in death will people pay attention to him. And Curly describing in detail how Jud will die and what will happen after is extremely nervewracking and creepy. In the dark scene after the song, they also have a shooting contest, further showing how willing Curly is to kill him for Laurey. One of my favorite dissections of this scene is here.
Jud and the ending of Oklahoma!
Traditionally the ending of the show goes like this: Jud comes to Laurey and Curlyâs wedding. He actively fights Curly, and he falls on the knife he was going to use to kill/hurt Curly and dies. They speed up Curlyâs trial because he was just using self defense.
But not if you look at the script by itself and interpret it without any of this prior knowledge, which is exactly what director Daniel Fish did. Instead of Jud and Curly fighting, Jud merely comes to the wedding and Curly shoots him in plain murder. Then the trial is rushed because the community rallies behind Curly and wants to protect him, with the only people opposing this kind of trial are the Black people in this cast.
Did Jud deserve this? Absolutely not! Everyone deserves the right to an unbiased trial, and how many stories have we heard in the news of cases going this way. We are sympathetic towards Jud and the plight he represents. But just because this horrible thing happened to him, doesnât mean we get to excuse everything with Laurey. They can be both acknowledged because life isnât one or the other, and thereâs no one real singular villain here.Â
So this revival is very script dependent, thatâs what the entire direction is based upon, so letâs see how Laurey describes Jud, outside of using him to annoy Curly:
@oklahoma2019â also pointed out to me just how well Jud knows what happened in this scene as if he was the one who did it. Now maybe he did, maybe he didnât but itâs just veryâŚ
@misspoulainâ pointed out how in all of the new orchestrations in the show, âLonely Roomâ is the only one that sounds close to the original, and that Patrick uses a more classical sound to his voice than anyone in the cast, showing how these kind of issues with incels and men demanding what they want has been going on for forever.Â
@oklahoma2019Â also pointed out that, âwhy doesnât Jud ever ask himself why these women are afraid of him and try to change that?â
Yes Iâm calling it that because thatâs how I see it, and yes assault can take many forms. I will just leave the scene here:Â
In this revival instead of holding her, he kisses her and starts moaning and he starts unzipping his pants. The lights are dim.Â
Even if you wanted to talk about how the actors are making the âchoiceâ to kiss each other, this whole time Laurey has been afraid of him, in her descriptions, actions, and dance choreography. People sometimes consent just because theyâre afraid of what might happen if they donât, or because they think this will all stop once she gives in. And either way she consented to a kiss, NOT him groping.
Now how many times have I heard the words âshe was asking for itâ / âShe led him onâ and other variations of that to say that something isnât assault, well guess what? This is.
One of my favorite articles about Jud and this phenomena of our sympathy for the man winning out over the trauma of the woman is this article from NY Times. â[Jud] resembles nothing so much as one of those furiously entitled contemporary outcasts who react to a womanâs rejection by committing some horrifically violent crime.Still, I couldnât stop myself. Looking at his watery, pink-rimmed eyes, I felt a pang of pity for him. [âŚ] show the ways that women are conditioned to feel for even wildly toxic men, while doggedly discounting their own needs, their own suffering and that of other women.â
Jud exemplifies one of the ways this revival fucks! All the complications within his character, from being made an outcast to threatening Laurey, affects our relation and reaction to him. How, with the house lights on, we are part of the community complicit in his murder and his unfair trial. How, a community can turn in on someone they think doesnât fit in (everyone besides Laurey and Aunt Eller at first). How the way men demand a womanâs attention has not changed between today and this original production in 1943. How all of this was in the script way back then. How up until now Jud has been just played off as a brainless guy used only to make Curly seem better (which he really isnât). This is why this Oklahoma! fucks, because theyâre pointing this all out and making us really think about the way our society is and where our sympathies and bonds lie.Â
Wanna hear some thoughts about other characters/scenes/songs? send me an ask :)
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