No Good Men in Oklahoma

When it comes to nationalism, there are no white hats.

Oklahoma!, now playing at Camelot Theatre through January 10th, uses Jud the creep as a foil for Curly the hero. It fails, however, to present Curly as a morally unambiguous protagonist. Instead, the only meaningful difference between the two is that Curly's chauvinism is accepted by their community.

Oklahoma! follows the courtship of Curly (Nathan Monks) and Laurey (Grace Peets) in post-Sooner/pre-state Oklahoma. Curly's desirability is supposed to be set in relief by the sexually aggressive loner Jud (Aaron Garber). Curly and Laurey, like Benedick and Beatrice, are attracted to each other but make a point of pride not to admit it. Everyone knows they like each other though: Aunt Eller (Linda Otto) suggests that Curly "just grab her and kiss her when she talks to [him] like that" after Laurey rebuffs him in the opening scene. The play begins in anticipation of a box social, in which women will be auctioned off to the men by proxy of the lunches they make. To jerk Curly's chain, Laurey agrees to go to the box social with Jud. In a member-measuring scene, Curly visits Jud in his shed and suggests he kill himself in "Pore Jud Is Dead," predicated by nothing but Jud's asking Laurey out on a date. Laurey has second thoughts after reflecting on the porn that Jud keeps pinned to the walls in the shed where he lives. Her cold feet come to a climax with a ballet sequence, choreographed by Rebecca Campbell, in which Jud rapes her and kills Curly when the latter comes to her rescue. Tensions rise between the two men in waking life as Curly moves in on Laurey, and her fears about Jud begin to come true with regards to his sexual aggression.

Curly, at least in this Oklahoma!, is morally ambivalent. While he is better than the morally turpitudinous Jud, he still engages in sexually possessive behavior towards Laurey even when she tells him "no." Rather than presenting a White Knight - or, since this is the West, a White Hat - Oklahoma! asks us what exactly differentiates Curly and Jud. The best answer it presents is that, ultimately, Curly is a native member of the community, while Jud came from elsewhere. In that sense, Curly's chauvinism is accepted and shared by the community, while Jud's represents a foreign threat. Their chauvinism is intimately related to the word's nationalistic roots: we can't forget that this story is built upon incipient statehood and patriotic excitement. Oklahoma! levels a candied critique at the chauvinistic identity of nationalism.

Curly may be better than Jud, but he's no good guy. He encourages his rival to commit suicide, apropos of nothing but juvenile jealousy, and ultimately kills Jud, committing the only homicide in a play that otherwise never crosses into bloody violence even while being on the verge of doing so. Curly's specific moral ambiguity reflects universally upon the moral ambiguity of nationalism. The effectiveness of this subtle critique is primarily indebted to Monks and Garber. Monks matches his charisma as an actor with an unsettling earnestness in recommending that Jud hang himself, and Garber plays a Jud who's simmering sexual frustration is ready to boil over at any moment.