The Death of Bessie Smith

"The Death of Bessie Smith" is a 1959 one-act play by American playwright Edward Albee, written in 1959 and premiered in West Berlin the following year. The play is based around a series of conversations. Conversations between Bernie and his friend Jack, between Jack and an off-stage Bessie, and between black and white staff of a 'Whites-only' hospital in Memphis, Tennessee on the day the famous blues singer, Bessie Smith is brought in (and denied admittance) following a car crash.

The Players:

(From the original published play)
Bernie: A Negro, about forty, thin.
Jack: A dark-skinned Negro, forty-five, bulky with a deep voice and mustache.
The Father: A thin, balding white man, about fifty-five.
The Nurse: A southern white girl, full blown, dark or red haired, pretty, with a wild laugh. Twenty six.
The Orderly: A light skinned Negro, twenty-eight, clean-shaven, trim, prim.
Second Nurse: A southern with girl, blond, not too pretty, about thirty.
The Intern: A southern white man, blond, well put-together, with an amiable face, thirty.

History

The incident that gives the play its title and around which the action centers is based upon a myth that was largely accepted as fact until convincing evidence to the contrary appeared in the original 1972 edition of Bessie, a biography of the singer. ["Bessie", by Chris Albertson (Yale University Press 2003).]

As widely believed, Bessie Smith did die following a car crash, but she was never refused admittance to a white hospital, which is the premise of Albee's play. She was taken directly to the Afro-American Hospital in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where she died some seven hours later. The myth of racial discrimination had its origin in an article by jazz writer/producer John Hammond, that appeared in the November 1937 issue of "Down Beat".

The character of Bessie Smith is only referred to in Albee's play and does not appear on stage. In early performances Albee did not even wish music or pictures of her to be used.

References