The Mound Builders

by Lanford Wilson

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The Play

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The Mound Builders opens in August Howe’s study in Urbana, Illinois, on a February morning. August, an archaeology professor, begins to dictate a report on the previous summer’s failed expedition to Blue Shoals, in southern Illinois. As he dictates, slides depicting scenes from the expedition are projected onto a screen at the back of the stage. The slides show the lake that threatened to flood his team’s excavation, the old farmhouse where the team and their families lived, construction of a dam close to the house and their excavation, a bulldozer, and their excavation site.

As August narrates over the slides, the scene fades into the previous summer, and the lights come up on an interior: the large living, dining, and working area of the old farmhouse. Most of the play’s action takes place here, in a series of brief scenes that introduce the central characters, detail their personal lives, and follow the progress of their expedition to discover evidence of early American Indian cultures. Scenes of the summer in Blue Shoals are interrupted by interludes in which August provides commentary in order to introduce background information or heighten suspense.

In the act’s second scene, Dan and Jean Loggins arrive at the farmhouse, the archaeological team’s summer home for the previous three years. Dan Loggins, also an archaeologist, is August Howe’s junior partner; Jean Loggins, a gynecologist, is Dan’s wife. Chad Jasker, the landowner’s son and a friend of Dan, has driven them to the house and helps to carry in their belongings. Dan tells August privately that he wants to keep the pregnancy of his wife, Jean, a secret from the students helping with the dig. The next evening Chad and August arrive at the house with Delia, August’s ill sister, a well-known writer. Dan describes a difficult day at the dig. A bit of a poet, Dan believes the early American Indians built mounds for essentially the same reasons motivating builders today. “A person isn’t happy,” he says, “unless he’s building something.”

The quick passage of summer at Blue Shoals is represented in a series of short scenes separated by abrupt blackouts, like slides in a slide show. In one scene, alone with Jean, Chad asks her to go with him to see a model of the county as it will look, he says, after Jasker’s development is built. An interstate highway will soon pass close to Blue Shoals, he says, and the new dam will create a large lake. On the lakeshore, resort accommodations will be built on land owned by Chad and his father, making them rich. Jean is happy for Chad but is fascinated with the process by which rural areas can be transformed by “the signing of an energy bill in Washington.” As Jean begins to leave the room, Chad suddenly expresses his desire for her. Jean tells him to “get lost.” Later, when Chad and Cynthia Howe are alone, he asks Cynthia for money, which she gives him. Events subsequently reveal that Chad and Cynthia are lovers.

The scene shifts back to Urbana in February. Alone in his study, August attempts to organize what he calls “shards” from the expedition. He catalogs a personal tragedy, including a separation from his wife and daughter and an impending resignation from his position at the university.

One night toward the end of June, Dan and Chad return drunk from a fishing trip. Dan tells Chad that the archaeologists have found something unusual under the roundhouse they are excavating. After Chad leaves, Dan tells Jean and Delia that Chad saved him last summer from drowning. Dan goes...

(This entire section contains 1352 words.)

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to bed, and a short scene between Delia and Jean ends the act. Delia believes that men and women burden themselves with too much pain. She envisions how the world ends: “A sad old world of widows . . . lined up on beaches . . . looking out over the water and trying to keep warm.”

When act 2 opens, the team has made an exciting discovery beneath the roundhouse: remains of an even earlier culture. Dan believes that they may have discovered a burial mound of the Mississippian culture, which had disappeared from southern Illinois many centuries before. The rest of the act focuses on the team’s increasingly more significant discoveries. The archaeologists work under extreme pressure as heavy summer rains threaten their excavation and cause the water level of the lake to rise, further endangering their project. Chad continues his affair with Cynthia and attempts once more to seduce Jean, who again rejects him.

In the longest speech of the play, Dan eulogizes a vanished member of the Mississippian culture, whom he calls Cochise. Cochise, he says, did not vanish “without a trace.” He left behind him burial mounds, remains of dwellings and tools, and enough evidence of his culture to attract admirers like Dan, who mourn his passing.

August and Dan’s team has unearthed the burial mound of a god-king, the first discovered in North America, only days before the lake would have flooded it. The team begins to collect artifacts from the mound, including the first gold ornaments known to be made by North American Indian cultures. Seeing the gold and copper beads, Chad admires August and Dan’s attempt to make something of themselves, not for money but for a reason he understands but is unable to express. The team has discovered a gold burial mask, which Dan puts on almost inadvertently.

While the team cleans and preserves gold and copper ornaments, Chad discovers that Jean is pregnant and becomes extremely agitated, perhaps because he thinks that everyone has been withholding this information from him. Chad tells the team that they will not be able to work on his father’s land next summer. Dan and he argue over the use of his father’s land, and Dan eventually tells Chad that the interstate highway on which Chad had been counting to bring vacationers and their money to Blue Shoals has been rerouted to the other side of the lake owing to the importance of the Native American monuments in the area. August and Dan have known this information for two years but kept it from everyone else, including Cynthia and Chad. When he learns this, Chad is furious, believing that he had been betrayed by the people he most respected and admired. Dan cannot convince Chad that the land has immense value as a repository of important indigenous dwelling places and artifacts. Instead, Chad howls at the loss of his dream of commercial success and abruptly leaves the stage.

Later that night, Chad returns, and Dan catches him about to leave the house with the god-king’s golden mask and other valuables. Chad then lures Dan outside, telling him that he has something to show him. The next morning, the team learns that Chad has run the bulldozer over the site, ruining the project, and has driven the machine into the lake. Moreover, Chad and Dan are missing. Telling August that Chad is “capable of anything,” Cynthia then destroys the photographic evidence of their finds. After discovery in the lake of an oar from Chad’s boat, a search for Chad and Dan is begun. Dan is missing, and Jean says, “WHY DID HE TRUST PEOPLE, WHY DID HE BELIEVE IN THINGS? . . . Vanished without a trace.”

The last scene in the play contrasts tableaux of August Howe in Urbana in February and three women—Cynthia, Delia, and Jean—in Blue Shoals in August. August says that he had imagined the house being carried off by a “great brown flood” when the lake rose; in fact, when he returned in January to see it, the house was on the same spot, half covered by the lake waters. In imagery reminiscent of the ending of act 2, the three women, alone in a house at the edge of rising waters, lament the loss of their men. The women fade into black. Motionless and speechless, microphone in hand, August cannot put his emotions into words as the lights fade on him.

Dramatic Devices

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Through a variety of dramatic devices that invite the audience to interpret the play metaphorically as well as literally, The Mound Builders directs the playgoer’s attention to the struggle of the characters to find meaning and purpose in their lives as well as in the course of all human existence. The play suggests that the meaning of human existence is not inherent in events themselves, but rather must be discovered, if not made. Wilson employs three major devices to make this point: a self-conscious stylized structure, numerous parallels between the culture of the mound builders and the present culture, and symbols suggesting that time itself works against humankind’s effort to build lasting monuments to itself.

The story of the failed expedition to Blue Shoals is told in flashback, six months after its climactic event, by August Howe, leader of the archaeology team. While attempting to organize a report on the expedition from the archaeologists’ notes and his wife’s slides, he recalls the events that brought about the end of his marriage, the failure of the expedition, and the death of Dan Loggins. This frame functions as a device to summarize and organize much diverse material, but Wilson uses it primarily to foreshadow the climactic revelation of the play and its consequences, thus suggesting the role played in subsequent events by the otherwise apparently random conversations and confrontations preceding it.

In the first scene of the play, for example, August says that he intends to “go through what is left of the wreckage of last summer’s expedition.” In the second framing scene, he refers to his wife as “ex-relation by marriage” and to his daughter as “alleged daughter.” In the fourth and final framing scene of act 1, August says, “There was no September goodbye this summer.” Early in act 2, in the last framing scene before the climax of the play, August says, “By the time the lake overran the site, it didn’t at all matter.” August’s apparent interruptions of the events of the summer thus frequently remind the audience that the events witnessed will eventually culminate by association in meanings and causation. In addition to the framing device, Wilson also foreshadows the outcome of the action by drawing numerous parallels between mound-builder culture and the present. These might represent coincidences, the action of fate, or merely plot machinations. Though their meanings are debatable, the parallels certainly add urgency and significance to ordinary human actions, motivations, needs, and desires.

Wilson’s stylized technique serves to remind the audience that what is being watched is not random behavior but a play. The lake water covering a multitude of sins at the end of this play also obliterates the past, making it appear that Dan, Chad, the roundhouse, and the burial mound have all vanished without a trace. Soon the old farmhouse will also disappear. The meaning of this place, then, exists only in human memory and in the spoken and written records made by those struggling to understand the meaning in their own lives.

Historical Context

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The Drug Culture of the 1970s

To the eyes of 21st-century observers, the nonchalant attitude towards drugs displayed by the characters in The Mound Builders might seem astonishing. Defying today's stereotypes, which often paint drug users as predominantly young, impoverished, and uneducated, the play's enthusiasts of marijuana and mescaline are in their twenties and thirties, well-educated, and comfortably middle class. Dan, who indulges most heavily, boasts a doctorate and is employed at a prestigious university. Meanwhile, Jean, a medical doctor with a past reputation as a "drughead," has abstained from drug use entirely for the duration of her pregnancy. These characters represent not the deviant but the archetypal young professionals of the era, for whom recreational drug use is neither scandalous nor hidden. During this time, the 1970s witnessed the most widespread drug use in American history.

Preceding the Second World War, acquiring drugs was a formidable challenge. Collaborating with other nations to stifle the production of opium poppies and coca, the United States successfully curtailed the influx of narcotics into its borders. Consequently, drug use was barely a blip on the social radar. However, post-war economic prosperity and breakthroughs in production techniques introduced a dual-edged development: an uptick in drug consumption. The 1960s ushered in a sizeable middle-class youth demographic equipped with disposable income and access to a burgeoning drug market. Marijuana surfaced as a common indulgence, and psychedelic substances promised to "expand consciousness." Against the backdrop of Watergate and the Vietnam War's conclusion, drugs became a tool of defiance for many seeking to dissociate from what they perceived as a morally bankrupt society. Given the predominantly middle-class demographic of users, drug use morphed into an almost casual, if still illegal, norm, further fueled by the reemergence of cocaine. Once a relic of the 1920s, cocaine was now embraced as a symbol of affluence and prestige. Public personalities often flaunted their drug use, with entertainment media celebrating the culture, epitomized by the comedic duo Cheech and Chong, who both parodied and glorified the drug scene.

By 1979, governmental statistics estimated that recreational drug use included one in ten Americans. Although drug use persists as a pervasive issue, neither the prevalence of users nor the casual demeanor of their consumption has matched the heights reached during this striking decade.

The Nation’s First Energy Crisis

In the dawn of the 1970s, the United States basked in an era of affordable energy and economic expansion. The notion of energy conservation was alien to most Americans, who envisioned an inexhaustible supply of energy, much like early settlers who couldn't fathom a depletion of land or buffalo. However, a stark reality check arrived in 1973. Major cities suddenly grappled with an inability to satiate the swelling demand for electricity needed to power a burgeoning array of air conditioners and electronic devices that had proliferated beyond the energy companies' production capabilities. This resulted in widespread "brownouts," as the utilities industry struggled to meet the power needs, causing a rapid escalation in rates.

In a dramatic turn of events in October 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an embargo, deliberately restricting oil sales to several nations, including the United States. The repercussions were swift and severe. Americans faced interminable queues at gas stations, and in some regions, gasoline purchases were rationed to specific days. In December, the national Christmas tree remained unlit, symbolizing a universal call for energy conservation among Americans.

Oil prices skyrocketed from three dollars a barrel in 1973 to thirty dollars by 1980, triggering a global recession. In response, reducing reliance on foreign oil became a national priority. Federal legislation championed energy conservation while fostering the pursuit of alternative energy sources. Financial incentives spurred the development of solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. This movement directly inspired ventures akin to Wilson’s imaginary Blue Shoals Dam, designed to generate hydroelectric power and, incidentally, foster a lake and its associated tourism. As Jean remarks to Chad, "The signing of an energy bill in Washington transforms rural areas into resorts—field hands into busboys."

Literary Style

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Frame

As the stage awakens into the world of The Mound Builders, August Howe, secluded in his Urbana, Illinois study, speaks into a tape recorder, his eyes absorbed by "the wreckage of last summer’s expedition" projected in slides. These images—depicting the lake, the house, the dam’s construction, the rumbling bulldozer, and the excavation site—cast their luminous stories on the wall for the audience to witness. Though most of the drama unfolds in Blue Shoals, Illinois, these scenes are memories, woven into the fabric of present-day February in Urbana. Throughout the play, August's solitary moments in his study interlace with vivid flashbacks of characters living out the tales captured in August's notes and Cynthia’s slides.

This narrative framework serves multiple purposes. On a technical level, it allows Wilson to present images to his audience that live theater cannot convey directly. While characters converse within the confines of the house, their discussions often spin around outdoor events—"August up to his a—— in mud," the ancient mounds laid bare and then levelled by the relentless bulldozer, the ever-rising lake. The stage cannot host a live bulldozer, but through the slides, the audience glimpses its aftermath, stuck and defeated in the mire. Artifacts like excavation pots and bone awls, too diminutive for live display, become accessible, enhancing the audience’s perception of the team's discoveries.

The framing device also casts a shadow of doubt over the unfolding interactions. If Blue Shoals is revisited through August’s memories, how steadfast are these recollections? Among the household, August stands aloof, mostly sequestered in his study, darting through rooms where conversations lack his interest. Resentment simmers toward Delia for her dependency, and after that summer, toward Cynthia and Kirsten for abandoning him. Chad, whom August never held in esteem, likely garners even less respect after the fateful summer presumed to end with Chad killing Dan and himself. Such dynamics likely taint August’s memory of that time. If he overlooks his wife’s brazen affair, how reliable are his recollections of dialogue? As the stage directions suggest, "the house is seen from August’s memory," an assertion that undoubtedly applies to the flashbacks. Thus, the framing relentlessly underscores the play as an artifact—a flawed, yet singular record.

Foreshadowing

In literature, when a writer subtly hints at forthcoming events—especially ominous or tragic ones—it is known as foreshadowing. In The Mound Builders, Wilson leaves no illusions about the impending gloom that shrouds the narrative. One of August’s early lines ominously references "the wreckage of last summer’s expedition," and for those familiar with Wilson’s earlier work, The Hot l Baltimore, the initial slide of the bulldozer heralds destruction to come.

August's slides and musings frequently preempt the dramatic events yet to unfold on stage. His second set of slides includes images of Cynthia, referred to twice as his “ex-relation.” Midway through the play, he remarks that "by the time the lake over-ran the site, it didn’t matter at all." Ultimately, he reveals, his painstaking efforts amounted to "a salvage operation from which we salvaged nothing." Further foreshadowing emerges as Delia envisions a "sad old world of widows" gazing over the waters; Dan unsettles Jean with a death mask; Cynthia predicts Chad’s failure to achieve wealth, foreseeing his and his father’s land wrenched away. Each of these moments, some overt, others more subtle, foreshadow the unfolding drama.

Why would an author deliberately unveil the future? Why strip away the element of surprise? Wilson deftly uses foreshadowing to redirect the audience’s focus from mere plot mechanics to the profound themes underneath. The narrative itself, while compelling, is not the central purpose; Wilson engages with the ideas that underpin it. By alleviating the pressure to track every plot twist, he invites the audience to delve deeper into the motivations and reasons behind the actions.

Compare and Contrast

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1975: The dawn of the personal computer era sees the creation of the first software designed to run these machines. However, personal computers are still a rarity. In prestigious universities, scientists harness the power of massive mainframe computers, while field archaeologists cling to tradition, scribbling notes with pen and paper, later transcribing them on electric typewriters.

Today: The landscape of technology has transformed the average American home into a hub of digital activity, with at least one personal computer and often a portable laptop in tow. Archaeological undertakings backed by academic institutions are now high-tech ventures, utilizing computers, GPS, digital cameras, cell phones, and a host of other electronic marvels.

Energy and Environment

1975: The shadow of the 1973 energy crisis looms large over the United States as it grapples with ongoing fuel shortages. In response, the federal government enacts a series of energy policies to curb reliance on foreign oil, championing the development of wind farms, solar panels, and hydroelectric dams.

Today: The specter of foreign oil dependency continues to haunt the nation, with federal initiatives shifting focus towards bolstering domestic oil production.

Gender and Society

1975: While women have gained nearly all the legal rights afforded to men and many enjoy thriving careers, societal norms still pose challenges. It is uncommon for women to sustain their careers post-motherhood, with childcare facilities scarce and only the wealthy able to afford private child care services.

Today: The career aspirations of women have expanded, with many thriving as doctors and artists, even after starting families. Quality childcare has become accessible for middle- and upper-class families, though affordable options remain a hurdle for those with lower incomes.

Communities and Growth

1975: Bull Shoals, Arkansas—possibly the inspiration for Blue Shoals, Illinois—stands as a picturesque resort town. Nestled along Bull Shoals Lake, a creation of the Bull Shoals Dam from the late 1940s, the town boasts motels, eateries, boat rentals, golf courses, and a myriad of attractions.

Today: Bull Shoals basks in its ongoing success, buoyed by a surge in both tourists and residents that saw its population swell by over 25% during the 1990s.

Media Adaptations

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The Mound Builders graced the PBS series Theater in America under the Great Performances banner in the memorable year of 1976. Enchanting viewers with its stellar cast, the production featured the talents of Trish Hawkins, Brad Dourif, and Tanya Berezin. This captivating work can be experienced in a ninety-minute video format, available from Insight Media.

Bibliography and Further Reading

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Sources

Barnett, Gene A., Lanford Wilson, Twayne, 1987, pp. 100–01.

———, ‘‘Recreating the Magic: An Interview with Lanford Wilson,’’ in Forum, Vol. 25, Spring 1984, p. 68.

Beaufort, John, Review of The Mound Builders, in the Christian Science Monitor, February 5, 1986, p. 29.

Busby, Mark, Lanford Wilson, Boise State University, 1987, p. 31.

Callens, Johan, ‘‘When ‘the Center Cannot Hold’ or the Problem of Mediation in Lanford Wilson’s The Mound Builders,’’ in New Essays on American Drama, edited by Gilbert Debusscher and Henry I. Schvey, Rodopi, 1989, p. 203.

Clurman, Harold, ‘‘Theatre,’’ in the Nation, March 15, 1975, pp. 315–16.

Kauffmann, Stanley, ‘‘Stanley Kauffmann on Theatre: Two American Plays,’’ in New Republic, March 1, 1975, p. 22.

Oliver, Edith, ‘‘On the Mounds,’’ in the New Yorker, February 17, 1975, pp. 84–85.

Simon, John, ‘‘Rum Deals Two with Coke,’’ in New York, February 10, 1986, p. 56.

Wilson, Lanford, Introduction to The Mound Builders, in Lanford Wilson: Collected Works, Volume II, 1970–1983, Smith and Kraus, 1998, pp. 126, 128.

Further Reading

Barnett, Gene A., Lanford Wilson, Twayne, 1987. This biography provides the best introduction to Wilson’s life and work. In a full chapter devoted to The Mound Builders, Barnett examines the play’s plot, structure, and major characters and discusses the play’s origins as two imagined scenes in the writer’s mind.

Bryer, Jackson R., Lanford Wilson: A Casebook, Garland, 1994. Twelve critical articles, an introduction, a chronology, and an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary works comprise this volume. While The Mound Builders is mentioned only briefly, interviews that Bryer conducted with Wilson and his collaborator Marshall Mason illuminate Wilson’s creative process.

Busby, Mark, Lanford Wilson, Boise State University, 1987. This brief monograph focuses on Wilson’s family history as it has influenced his writing. Busby treats The Mound Builders, Wilson’s first play set in the Midwest, as an important stepping stone toward the playwright’s Talley family plays—his greatest works.

Cooperman, Robert, ‘‘Lanford Wilson: A Bibliography,’’ in Bulletin of Bibliography, Vol. 48, September 1991, pp. 125–35. Although no longer up-to-date, this bibliography is a good source for information about productions of The Mound Builders and other plays, including performance and publication dates, and citations for criticism and reviews. Interviews with Wilson, and performances by him, are also listed.

Ryzuk, Mary S., The Circle Repertory Company: The First Fifteen Years, Iowa State University Press, 1989. This is a history of the theater company founded in 1969 in New York by playwright-in-residence Lanford Wilson and managing director Marshall W. Mason. Wilson wrote The Mound Builders and other plays with the ‘‘Circle Rep’’ company in mind; the character of Delia, for example, was created specifically for one of the company’s actors.

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