Crux
By Jesi Bender
Does blood grease the wheel of history? Or does it simply dry to dust and flake away?
Jesi Bender’s play Crux takes place inside Northern Ireland’s HM Prison Maze where, in 1981,
revolutionary Bobby Sands is on hunger strike. To distract himself from his pain, Sands
contemplates the role of violence in political change, struggling with the competing philosophies
of historical radicals that visit him (in some form) inside his cell. When the serendipitous
death of a government leader opens up a seat in Parliament, Sands must decide what message he
wants to embody, and exactly what sacrifice he wants to make.
Notices
“The writings of my comrade, Bobby Sands, have been translated into numerous languages and disseminated around the world. Other writers and artists have created fictional accounts of his life based on what they now know about him from his writings. Jesi Bender’s play is an imaginative and fascinating read as she intertwines Bobby’s story with a number of other ‘actors’ from different geographical locations and/or time periods. It reminds me very much of the imaginary conversations I once had as I paced the floor of my prison cell, five paces forward, five paces back. I was no longer in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh but in Cuba with Fidel Castro, Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh, or in Poland or Germany with Rosa Luxemburg—or they were in Ireland with me. There is a great coherence and integrity about the play. I’d love to see a staged production of it.”
—Laurence McKeown, writer/playwright, former IRA prisoner who took part in the prison protests and the 1981 hunger strike (70 days)
Jesi Bender is an artist from Upstate New York. She is the author of the novels Child of Light and The Book of the Last Word, the plays Crux and Kinderkrankenhaus, and the poetry collection Dangerous Women. Her shorter work can be seen in Denver Quarterly, FENCE, and Sleepingfish, among other places. www.jesibender.com