Show and Tell Post - Fur

Fur is one of the most bizarre plays I have ever read! It was written by Migdalia Cruz in 1994 and was published in 2000.  It was first presented the New Dramatists in New York in 1994 and then by the Latino Chicago Theater Company in February 1995 where it was staged at the Steppenwolf Theater. In 1997, it was staged by the Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco and ran from October 2^nd to October 27^th.  This play was written for the stage.  It was also published in Out of the Fringe: Contemporary Latina/Latino Theater and Performance in New York. You can find this play and any other important information at the North American Women’s Drama web site. 

There are four characters: they are Citrona, who is a woman who has hair or fur all over her body and is kept in a cage by Michael who owns and runs a pet store. Nena is a young beautiful woman who loves Michael and catches animals such as rabbits for Michael to sell in his shop.  The setting is in the summer in the deserts suburbs of Los Angeles.  Nena is in love with Michael and Michael is in love with Citrona.  The play opens in a side show carnival when Michael is getting ready to buy Citrona.   He buys her but has a hard time controlling her and hires Nena to take care of her since she is good with animals.  At first Nena is afraid of Citrona because Citrona lives in her own fesses just like an animal making her smell and eats live animals of which she keeps the skins in a pile in the corner of her cage. After some time, Nena becomes accustomed to cleaning up after Citrona and they begin to have some conversations.  Citrona begins to fall in love with Nena.  Now there is a strange love triangle. At this point, Nena still will not enter into Citrona’s cage because she is still afraid of her.  Michael on the other hand, secretly watches their interaction in hopes of some sign that Citrona will begin to love him. All during these interactions, there is sand from the desert blowing in the door and window and swirling around the room. Finally, Michael lets Nena spend the night with Citrona with the promise that she will love him.  Nena spends the night but Citrona realizes that Nena could never love her. She kills Nena and eats her. Michael lets Citrona out thinking that he will have her. The lights go out and you hear Michael scream leading you to believe that he is dead.

I found it interesting that the author put the blowing sand in the stage directions.  According the script as found in the first page with the character descriptions, the sand is continuing to build up on the set and on the basement window as the play progresses.  It also says that the pile of furs increases also.  This could show the passage of time within the world of the play. The sand could represent the passage of time like the sand in an hour glass. I think that is why the author used this symbol within the script.  It gives the characters such as Nena time to overcome her fear of Citrona. Nena on the other hand was justified in her fear of Citrona and revealed in the end when she is killed.

It is interesting that the duration of scene 18 is the longest.  This is the scene when Nena is in the cage with Citrona and they have a romantic dinner. This seems to be the climax of the whole play. All the other scenes were leading us to this one scene.  This is the scene just before Citrona kills Nena and this scene begins to build the tension of how Nena will react to Citrona’s advances.

Fur http://solomon.wodr.alexanderstreet.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/cgibin/asp/philo/getobject.pl?c.660:1.wodr