FABULATION, Fables, and Brer Rabbit
The famous trickster figure of African American folklore and why fables are important in Lynn Nottage’s satire
In Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine — onstage at Lantern Theater Company June 2 through 26, 2022 — storytelling is a crucial act. “Fabulation” is the act of creating a fable, of making up or retelling stories that involve exaggerated or fantastical elements, often to share a lesson. Fabulation the play does this by exaggerating stereotypes and situations in order to turn them inside out. The characters are also doing their own fabulation: Undine’s whole life is a story, one she is crafting and retelling with every encounter — and sharing with us, the audience. Her friends, family, and those she encounters along her journey home are all telling their own stories, some true, some false, most a mixture of the two. And Undine’s brother, Flow, is doing the most literal storytelling as he works on an epic poem featuring Brer Rabbit.
Fables are a common storytelling method that use simple tales, often focused around animals, to share lessons and morals about societal expectations. The fable is a common storytelling method used to instill morals. Famous examples include the tortoise and the hare (slow and steady wins the race), the ant and the grasshopper (don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today), and the goose that laid the golden egg (greed will ultimately harm you).
In the oral traditions of many Black Americans primarily from the South, Brer Rabbit is an important figure of fables. He is a trickster figure who uses his wits to get ahead rather than his physical strength. Brer Rabbit’s main antagonist is Brer Fox, and in these entertaining stories, Brer Rabbit usually (though not always) comes out on top despite being smaller and physically weaker. The figure has origins in African folklore; when enslaved people were brought to America, their trickster rabbit merged with a similar figure among indigenous Americans, producing Brer Rabbit.
The trickster figure is common among many folklore traditions, and is often a complicated figure that can be both malevolent and an innocent prankster. In African folklore, the trickster rabbit was often an antagonist, persuading an innocent and hardworking animal to do what the rabbit wanted by way of its charm. However, in the United States, Brer Rabbit became a kind of hero, a figure who usually comes into conflict only when instigated by an opponent and who generally has the moral high ground even when performing acts of theft or dishonesty. Through wit, charm, speed, and guile, Brer Rabbit is able to triumph over his physically dominant opponents. For enslaved people, these stories often operated as ways to maintain hope and strategies for psychological survival ; Brer Rabbit was able to succeed against the dominant dim but powerful forces, despite the odds being against him, and his tactics, perseverance, and success were subversions of the established hierarchy of his world.
The stories were popularized with white audiences by Joel Chandler Harris, an Atlanta journalist who collected and anthologized the stories beginning in 1881. In doing so, he created the narrator character of Uncle Remus — a Black character palatable to white audiences largely because of his satisfaction with his station in life and his adoration of the white children in his charge. In Fabulation, part of Flow’s poetry project is reclaiming Brer Rabbit and returning him to his roots in Black folklore.
Just as Brer Rabbit is a trickster, so too are many of Fabulation’s characters. Undine is a particular trickster figure — through wit, smarts, and guile, she has overturned the social hierarchy, creating a space for herself at the top. But that victory comes at a cost and with great moral ambiguity. When her trick comes crashing down around her, Undine must find a way to live more honestly. Just as Flow works to reclaim Brer Rabbit, Undine must work to undo the story she has created for her life in order to reclaim her true self. Fabulation explores the stories we tell about — and to — ourselves, and the ways in which the story can both become the truth and get in the way of it.
Lantern Theater Company’s production of Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine is onstage June 2 through 26, 2022, at St. Stephen’s Theater. Visit our website for tickets and information.
