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Moirai (Greek Fates)

In Greek mythology, the beings that we know as the Fates are three goddesses that represent humanity’s inescapable destiny.

Clotho (KLOH-thoh) - Spinner, who spins the thread of each person’s fate

Lachesis (LA[A as in bad]-kih-sihs) - Alloter, who dispenses each person’s thread of fate

Atropos (A[as in bad]-truh-pohs) - meaning “inevitable”, the Cutter, who cuts each person’s thread, marking the exact moment of their death

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Some fire basics

This is a great primer on arson basics. You can read the full article here, and I’ve included some of the more relevant sections below. One of the things I’ve found interesting about my arson research is that the technique M & H use (braided fabric dipped in some kind of accelerant) is not something described in the literature almost at all. It adds a particularly nice, old-country traditional craft element to the story that having them unspool commercially processed pyrotechnic cord certainly would not. 

excerpted from "Motive, Means, and Opportunity, A Guide to Fire Investigation." American Re-Insurance Company, Claims Division, 1996.

Arsonists are careful about choosing the time and circumstances of fires they set in the hopes of escaping detection. The most important considerations to the success of the fire are sufficient fuel and access of air. Sometimes it's important to delay ignition, and then more unusual methods are employed.

Location, Location, Location

Once the target is selected, the arsonist makes choices critical to the "success" of the fire. As in real estate, where "location is everything," so it is in arson. We are referring to the point of origin within that target. The point of origin for the fire must ensure flames will continue to reach fresh fuel.

Flames will spread fastest across the underside of a ceiling or overhang. Thus, the floor adjacent to a flammable wall is the most likely point of origin. Walls covered with gypsum sheet rock suppress a fire. Unless holes have been broken through the sheet rock to expose the flammable wall studs or ceiling joists, once the paint and surface paper burn off, the fire will die rapidly. Wood paneling varies in its resistance to fire, but generally add to the fuel load of a room.

There are advantages and disadvantages of new or old furniture at the site of the targeted fire. If appropriate, the arsonist may use certain furniture to start and spread the fire. Older furniture stuffed with animal hair and covered with wool is more difficult to ignite. Once ignited, this type does not burn too well. More modern furniture often uses quantities of polyurethane foam padding, which can be ignited easily with a match. It burns quickly and forcefully. Lighter synthetics and cottons, used for upholstery, can be flammable and burn well.

In a commercial or industrial building, the arsonist may move readily available supplies of finished goods, packing materials, or raw materials around strategically to provide a large load of readily combustible fuel.

1. Points of Origin

a. Basements

A benefit to using this part of a building as the fire's source is that walls and ceilings are often bare of any fire-inhibiting covering and the building above provides ready fuel. Basements, ordinarily hidden from view, can provide a protected environment for the arsonist to work. The litter or storage in these areas, may be used as an "excuse" for a so-called accidental fire.

b. Attics

Attics, like basements, contain storage materials that can be pointed to as the source of an "accidental" fire, but the attic has limited fuel making it one of the less likely sites chosen because the fire may only destroy the ceiling and roof. 

Fuels

Fuels used depend on the mindset of the arsonist. Some want to use fuels available at the scene for simplicity and ensure they are inconspicuous to witnesses by not carrying containers or odd packages into a building. The "thinking" arsonist wants to ignite the fire with a simple device that is sure to work, and that will be destroyed in the blaze. And he or she often want complete destruction and will therefore pick a fuel and ignition device that will thwart normal suppression activities.

1. Trash Trash-filled basements, attics, and storage rooms may be perceived by authorities as sites for "accidental" fires. Readily available and treated with a small amount of flammable liquid, trash will generally ignite easily and provide a cover for the arsonist because these fires may be explained away as accidents.

2. Ignitable Liquids Amateur arsonists are more likely to use a greater quantity of an accelerant and tend to place the accelerant in a less effective position. The professional arsonist achieves a successful blaze with more judicious use of an accelerant.

Liquid accelerants are often--

poured over carpeting or furniture;

poured on an open floor, a pile of paper or trash, or a combination of these;

placed on absorbent surfaces (e.g. soil, newspapers or carpets);

poured on piles of newspapers to enable the fire to burn only on the outside of the stack (fuel near the center of the stack can be detected days later).

Experience, motivation, and intent usually determines the type of ignitable liquid used as an accelerant--

Gasoline is one of the most commonly used accelerants because it's efficient and easily ignited and because it can usually be bought and transported without arousing suspicion.

The next most common fuels are paint thinners and light kerosenes. Moderate amounts can be purchased without arousing suspicion because there are legitimate uses for these fuels in private homes.

The fuel's volatility has great bearing on its suitability to the task--

Extremely volatile fuels such as gasoline, lacquer thinner or alcohols can evaporate at high temperatures, interfering with the ignition and spread of the fire. Vapors can travel considerable distances and produce explosive mixtures in the vicinity of distant "accidental" sources of ignition, most typically the pilot light on the water heater or furnace. The arsonist must place the accelerant quickly and set the fire from a safe distance. This reduces the control he has over the target. Gas isn't a favorite with the professional arsonist because explosions may occur without setting a fire, but amateurs may employ it, sometimes to their detriment.

Ignition

Primary ignition devices include--

1. Flame

Key facts:

easy to create, apply and eliminate as evidence;

a definite means of starting a fire because it's a fire already and requires only propagation;

whatever is left at the scene (like a burnt match) it is assumed will likely be destroyed. (An exception: a candle which won't often be completely destroyed, and melted wax will remain in a fire if it accumulates on a non-combustible surface even though the form of the candle is altered. Most commonly used is the white drug store variety which will burn at about a rate of one inch every 46 minutes. The key is that candles give the arsonist plenty of time to get to another place when the fire starts, furnishing him or her with an alibi.);

another source of flame is an altered gas pilot light assembly or broken gas line set to throw a blowtorch-like flame. (This source may be overlooked by investigators who may conclude that the fire began because of an accidental malfunction of these devices.)

2. Fuse

Key facts:

a time-delay device;

one example: a trailer that connects points of origin and directs flames to a remote location.

There are several types of fuses--

pyrotechnic...uses a train of flammable powder packed around a string core; has an exposed flame at all points along its length; will scorch and even ignite combustibles upon which it rests; also known as hobby or rocket fuse; widely available in hobby stores; vary in their burning rates, from 30 seconds per foot to 10 seconds per foot;

safety...contains a train of black powder within layers of string and asphalt wrappings; sometimes a continuous tube of water-resistant plastic; has an exposed flame only at its ends; asphalt coating will melt and smolder, but the wrappings will remain in place and damage to surroundings will be minimal; almost always sold through suppliers of commercial blasting supplies; burns at 30 to 40 seconds per foot;

igniter cord...has a core of pyrotechnic powder wrapped in wire; used only in special blasting operations when high temperatures and quick burning times are desirable; after burning, a fine multiple spiral of wire is left behind .

3. Cigarettes

Key facts:

the lighted cigarette in the waste basket is a source of accidental fires from carelessness;

more effective in combination with other flame sources;

commonly found with matches. (The lighted cigarette is placed between two layers of paper matches in a matchbook. When it burns down to the head it will ignite the matches and the book will burst into flame.);

another variation: tying matches around the outside of a cigarette which burns down to the match heads. (This device is fairly resistant to burning to completion, especially the match book. Thus, its remains can be found by careful examination of the point of origin. This is among the most commonly used delay devices in grass and wildland fires.)

Multiple Ignition Points

Professional arsonists will often set multiple ignition points connected by a fire-spreading trailer such as a flammable liquid, smokeless gunpowder, rags, twisted ropes or newspaper, waxed paper or even fabric softener strips. A trailer of flammable liquid may be poured from one electrical outlet to another, in efforts to simulate an electrical fire. Materials most often used as trailers are toilet paper, black gunpowder, film wrapped in paper rags, excelsior, kerosene, decorative streamers, cotton batting, kapok, paper, and combinations of these items. When a fire is extinguished before destroying the building, these trailers can often be identified. Investigators should examine the nap of rugs, hardwood floors or their polished surfaces carefully for sign of these materials.

Multiple ignition points do cause more destruction, but also may present problems for the arsonist--

They require additional materials and fuels.

There's the chance that one of the elements will fail, leaving intact evidence to be discovered.

Placing fuel at several sites versus one takes more time and increase his or her chances of being detected.

This approach places the arsonist at risk for getting trapped in the fire because fuel may splash onto his or her shoes or clothing and accidentally ignite.

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Jubal’s Kin is the band that the script points to as inspiration for the sound of the music in The Arsonists. Here is a video by them, and they have lots more (mostly live) videos of their music on their YouTube channel.

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Truman Capote & Greek Tragedy

It’s a fascinating choice that Jackie makes in the script to describe M’s knowledge of the Greek Moirai (Fates) as being because Cousin Need loved reading Truman Capote. It’s not a huge stretch, In Cold Blood is commonly analyzed as following the structure of Greek tragedy, but Capote’s stories never specifically reference Greek mythology so we wouldn’t necessarily imagine that an old North Florida swamps family cousin would make that connection. In fact though, it’s a choice that is strongly rooted in Jackie’s deep connection to Southern Gothic literature. As the “What is Southern Gothic” piece describes, one of the themes in the literature is marginalized people with unexpected traits (the author points out a Flannery O’Connor example of a backwoods character with a false leg and a PhD). Southern Gothic is also a genre that is described as an earlier classical genre (Gothic and Romantic fiction from England) being reimagined in a distinctly American way. Similarly, literary analysis of In Cold Blood that refers to its Greek tragedy style typically refers to the story as being an American reimagining of the classical Greek genre. So Cousin Need being a backwoods arsonist who also muses about themes of Greek tragedy maybe isn’t so far off.

Here’s an excerpt from a 1967 article on teaching In Cold Blood to high school students, written by Dr. Joan Berbrich, that gives a nice summary of some Greek themes that we could imagine crossing Cousin Need’s mind. It also focuses on the story of retribution for Agamemnon’s death, which is the tale of Electra that The Arsonists is inspired by:

When the book is brought into the classroom, it is already familiar to almost every student. Though few have read it, all have heard about it. Almost all know about the Clutter murders. They even know the outcome. Yet, they find in the novel suspense and drama. They gain some of the satisfaction, some of the catharsis Greek audiences must have experienced when they watched the Agamemnon story unfold in the amphitheatre. Those spectators, 2500 years ago, knew that Agamemnon would be slain, that Orestes would, in retaliation, kill his mother, that Orestes would then be pursued by avenging Furies.

Today’s seniors know that the Clutters will be murdered, that the killers will be pursued, that they will be captured, tried, and executed. In both cases, the foreknowledge heightens appreciation. The reader of In Cold Blood knows Hickock and Smith will be caught, but the reader, too, is caught in an emotional labyrinth. He wants justice. He feels pity for men distorted by the human condition. He experiences (but often refuses to admit) sympathy for the pursued. In the Aeschylus trilogy, Orestes is absolved. In In Cold Blood Smith and Hickock are purged at the gallows, and they emerge, not absolved, but understood. For Man, along with these two men, was indicted, and the general indictment restores humanity to the two who had forfeited it.

High school seniors are old enough to understand that humanity encompasses man’s vicious impulses as well as his divine-like compassion. They do not grow mawkish or sentimental about the two killers. From a reading of the novel, however, they do become more aware of the complexity of man, of the responsibility of one man for another, of the close and confused tie that binds all men. Cain’s fatal retort, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” acquires new and terrifying significance.

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What is Southern Gothic

This excellent overview of the Southern Gothic literary tradition was written by Morgan Kern, a professor at Trinity College. I’ve emphasized (in bold) some descriptions that are particularly present in Jackie’s script:

Southern Gothic is the name given to a literary movement with its roots in the Romantic and Gothic traditions of British literature. Authors that write in the Southern Gothic style borrowed the hyperaware, emotionally rich style of the Romantics and the Gothic interest in isolation and decay and applied these ideas to their region of the United States to develop a unique literary style.

Overlapping characteristics of Southern Gothic literature include:

isolation and marginalization

violence and crime

sense of place

freakishness and the grotesque

destitution and decay

oppression and discrimination

Significant Southern Gothic authors include Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers but their cues are taken from predecessors like Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allen Poe. We see the Southern Gothic style of writing even in the modern day through the works of authors like Phillip Roth and Cormac McCarthy.

Additionally these thematic concerns have made their way into music, TV, and film (some of which are adaptations of author’s work). These include movies like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, TV shows like True Blood, American Horror Story, and The Vampire Diaries. Bands like Murder by Death have even introduced Southern Gothic themes into their music both in terms of style and subject matter.

Southern Gothic literature relies heavily on imagery and symbolism. Charles Reagan Wilson, Ph.D., Cook Chair of History and Professor of Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi says that, "In the Southern Gothic tradition, everything has meaning…The abandoned plantation house isn't there just to be spooky. It represents our fixation with history” (Southern Living). You will find rich symbolism throughout pieces in this literary tradition. For instance, in Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” the decaying home also alludes to the physical decay (and perhaps moral decay) of the Usher family.

It is common in Southern Gothic literature, to find innocence surrounded by cruelty and corruption. “When southern gothic authors examine the human condition, they see the potential to do harm. Morality is in question for many characters. A major theme for southern gothic writers hinges on innocence and the innocent’s place in the world— where they are often asked to act as redeemer” (Oprah’s Book Club). However, through the lens of these authors the question often becomes can this corrupt, tainted world even be saved? Can innocence be victorious? Conclusions vary according to author.

One of the most outstanding and noticeable characteristics of this classification of literature is its fascination with outsiders and characters that somehow veer from the social norm. These stories brim with aged characters, mentally and physically disabled characters, black characters, homosexual characters, the socially deviant, and the disempowered. In Southern Gothic stories you have characters like the simple, agoraphobic Boo Radley and African American Jim who is accused of a horrible crime. In O’Connor’s “Good Country People” you get backwoods girl Hulga in possession of both a PhD and a prosthetic leg. By assembling a collection of oddball characters, Southern Gothic authors often explore how these marginalized people can be misunderstood and taken advantage of.

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On Tigers

When H starts describing the firey danger of the tiger in The Arsonists, I was reminded of William Blake’s famous poem, “The Tyger.” It’s particularly apt considering that one common analysis of the poem is that it poses the question why God would create something so fearsome in a world of innocence. This is similar to the “if there is a God why does he let so much suffering and death happen” question, and one that we can envision being a part of M’s struggle to cope with her father’s death.

Read the poem below, and a short critical analysis of it here.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies. Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain, In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears And water’d heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

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From the inescapable heat to the equally inescapable past, here’s a very nice summary of some key elements of Southern Gothic literature

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It turns out there are lots of different chemicals that one might soak braided cloth in to make fuses, but this one is interesting because it uses household ingredients that are easy to come by without arousing any suspicion - even if you’re buying large quantities

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More on the ethos of traditional handiwork; and even more context about the video on the faircompanies web site.

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This 1993 Kentucky Educational Television (PBS affiliate) documentary visits members of five Western Kentucky families to discover how they are preserving the tradition of hand-crafting these household items—and why they believe it is important to maintain this link to the past.

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In her own words: Jackie talks about The Arsonists

From Phindie:

CK: Both Bottle Fly and The Arsonists are both very much rooted in place. Do you think of yourself as a playwright of place?

JG: The idea of place is incredibly important to me, because in theater you’re there, it’s live—you are very much immersed in the place. Creating that strong, compelling, and engaging sense of place in the language of my plays is a very large part of creating the atmosphere of the world. I think we do need to create the world in theater more than we have to in other literatures, because with fiction you’re sitting at home, and you can imagine the ins and outs of a world if you like. In theater, because we are coming together at a specific time and a specific location to tell a particular story, it is really important that the world is a strong part of the play. That’s true even if it takes place on the moon!

CK: Who were the playwrights who inspired that attitude in your writing?

JG: Sam Shepard does a great job of creating place, even in some of his earlier works which can be really out there. Enda Walsh does a phenomenal job, and Caryl Churchill is another one. And August Wilson, because you could not tell his stories in any other place than where he sets them. It is that vital to the story he’s telling. We have a tremendous history in America of evocating place in a strong and specific way, and since I grew up reading a lot of traditionally American stories, I think that filtered through.

CK: Speaking of inspiration, you used Electra as the starting point for The Arsonists. Was that always a text you wanted to work with?

JG: It was not a text I always wanted to work with. Of the Greek tragedies, it was never the one that truly popped for me, until after I had kids. But after I had kids, I was teaching the Frank McGuinness adaptation of Electra, and all of a sudden the relationship between Electra and Agamemnon became so much more dimensional and vital. I initially thought of doing more of a straight adaptation, but the fact is that there are plenty of straightforward adaptations of that play. So I started thinking about what other ideas I had in the pot, and what might fit together. The idea of a father/daughter arson team was one I’d had for a while, but I didn’t know what to do with it. When I stuck Electra to it, it started to have some heat. It started to make some sense, because the relationship between the father and daughter is likely very private, very intense, and very dangerous. They would be likely to lose each other. I don’t always know why certain ideas start to group together, but they do. There is a magnetism that just starts to click into place.

From WHYY:

Goldfinger is part of the younger generation of playwrights who are helping turn Philadelphia into a hub of new theater. She began writing a trilogy six years ago: “The Terrible Sisters (2012), “Skin and Bone (2014) and, now, “The Arsonists,” all developed and produced by Philadelphia’s Azuka Theatre.

While the characters and storylines do not necessarily connect, the plays are joined by a Southern Gothic sensibility. This final part of the trilogy concerns a father-daughter team of arsonists for hire, living outside the law in the Florida Everglades. The story is heavily influenced by the Greek tragedy of Electra and her dead father, Agamemnon.

“It digs very deeply, which is why we chose to incorporate music,” said Goldfinger. “There are places music can go emotionally that the best-written monologue can’t go. There are feelings, memories that music can evoke in us like nothing else.”

Goldfinger said she wrote a “play with music,” a theater format hearkening back to America’s Victorian era. It’s not a play with merely interstitial music, nor is it a musical with a plot driven by production numbers.

“The ‘play with music’ has fallen out of fashion,” said Goldfinger. “Music is played by actors in the play in the context of the story, that deepens the emotional moment, that connected them to a greater community, and deepens the feelings without having to have a 10-minute monologue.”

From Philadelphia Weekly:

Goldfinger states that she wrote the first draft of The Arsonists over three long wine-soaked nights by the seaside in Lisbon while at the Disquiet Literary Conference, an event whose goal is to “help support the creation of provocative and disruptive literature, so the play seemed destined to be born at that time, at that place, among those people,” she says. “However, this idea – scored with music from my childhood: roughed up hymns, reimagined folk tunes – has been around since 2011 when we produced Terrible Girls at Azuka, and caught fire in my imagination when I was teaching Frank McGuinness’ adaptation of Electra after giving birth to twins.”

The unbreakable bond between Electra and her father, Agamemnon, the betrayal she felt by her mother, and Goldfinger’s fear she might not be a good mother rattled her bones.

“Around the same time, my father had some health issues, which pushed me to think even more about our relationship and that he’s not going to be around forever.” The Arsonists grew from a more intimate, personal place of having just given birth and intense, sometimes deeply disturbing, connections to her children which, “went far beyond the Disney-ish sanitized sentimental love and parenthood. They were primal emotions, so visceral, that they could only be tackled through the lens of Greek theater. We’ve been told that we are beyond these emotions, too civilized and intelligent, yet they are there and can be equally damaging and empowering.”

From CityBeat:

Initially, Goldfinger considered adapting Sophocles’ Electra, an ancient Greek tragedy about a daughter grieving her father’s death. “But as I did a deeper dive into the literature, I found that that story has been adapted and readapted so often that I wasn’t sure we needed another adaptation,” the playwright says. Instead, she turned to the ancient story as a loose inspiration for her new play. “The Everglades was the perfect place to set this mythical story, transforming Electra’s story of family connection into American myth.”

Goldfinger recalls, “It can be so dry in the Everglades that you can have these fires that just rage. Sometimes they’re set by people, sometimes by nature — and sometimes you don’t know.” Setting fires brought necessary elements together for her script. “To have a father-daughter team with arson as a legacy passed down by generations allowed me to connect with the mythic nature of Electra and her family’s journey while also making it very specifically American and talking about us today.”

Goldfinger has powerfully employed music in her concept. The ancient Greek play had “huge monologue moments that express very deeply held emotions” and she felt songs would be a good choice to replace these moments. As the daughter of an amateur musician, Goldfinger grew up with Americana and Folk tunes. “I chose songs prevalent in the region that two characters could play and be interesting, moving and funny — and also touching and full of grief and hope,” she says.

Her script for The Arsonists indicates songs for various scenes, but she wanted to enable flexibility and invite interpretation from production to production. “While it’s technically the same traditional songs, in some theaters they do them with a harmonica and change the arrangement. In some, they do them with two guitars. The music is specific, but it’s malleable enough to fit whatever vision the director wants to fill the space in the text.”

Goldfinger says the play’s bottom-line appeal is the fact that “often we don’t realize how much we love someone until they are gone. Rather than wait for my father to die, I’m going to tell him how much he means to me.” In fact, Goldfinger calls her play “a love letter to my father.”

Subjects covered during a Rep Radio podcast interview (35 minutes):

Major show themes - parent/child relationships, learning to let go

Elektra “adaptation” comparison and Greek theatre themes/styles

“Play with music” - Jackie’s childhood influences

Storytelling vibe, especially with music

Play development process

Rolling world premiere process

Changes to the script over the 2-year development process

Southern Gothic trilogy descriptions - The Terrible Girls, Skin & Bone, The Arsonists

Favorite songs in the show

Inspiration for Southern Gothic trilogy

Audience takeaway hopes

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An album of music inspired by The Arsonists