Cormac McCarthy (1933- ) is a writer best known for his novels, with his modern masterpiece The Road winning the much coveted Pulitzer Prize for literature in 2007. But with The Sunset Limited, first performed in 2006, McCarthy proved that he was as good a script writer as he was a prose writer.
It is set “in a black ghetto in new York City” with two characters called Black and White sitting and talking together in Black’s apartment and it becomes clear early on that there is an important backstory to their exchange. It turns out that Black has just saved White from jumping in front of a train so as to end his life. The train is called The Sunset Limited. The context of White’s attempted suicide sparks off a frank conversation between them about religion and philosophy which is as funny as it is meaningful.
Black is a Christian and an ex-convict who speaks with a cheery African-American Southern accent, whereas White is a professor and an atheist whose voice is clearly weary of the world he lives in. He takes a misanthropic view of human nature, using his knowledge of human history to provide examples of just how evil humanity is capable of being, declaring that “Western civilization finally went up in smoke in the chimneys at Dachau”. Yet, whilst Black accepts that humans are not “whole”, he also believes that humans can ultimately be redeemed by asking for forgiveness for the wrongs they have committed. Having been previously convicted for murder, he claims to have experience of this journey of repentance, of turning back to God while in prison and in his recounting his story we get a flavour of the brutality and violence of the world typical to McCarthy’s writing.
Even though it seems like much of the conversation is at Black’s bidding, White repeatedly attempts to go back to the station so as to try to jump in front of the train again, putting Black on the back foot, trying to persuade the professor with all his charm to stay just for a little longer in the hope that it might convince White that there is purpose in living. There is thus a fine power balance between the two characters and, as to authorial intent; we are never sure as to whose side McCarthy is more sympathetic to, with both characters putting forward powerful arguments for their respective outlooks, unsure as to who is going to win this abstract battle which is informing on a highly corporeal matter.
In many ways it is similar to the style of playwright Samuel Beckett. It is a play in which very little happens, a play comprised simply of two people talking in the same room for a couple of hours. However, unlike in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, there is more of a sense of direction in The Sunset Limited. The two characters have an argument, drawing on known philosophical concepts and real-world historical events and their own experience to back up their positions, the main objective of this for Black being that he wants to keep White in the room.
However, like Waiting for Godot, Cormac McCarthy’s The Sunset Limited, especially in its ending, provides no easy answers and instead places an expectation on the audience and/or reader to ponder for themselves on what Black and White have said and come to their own conclusions. For those who enjoy pondering the big questions in life, as well as captivating and convincing characterisation with a healthy dose of humour thrown in, this is a highly satisfying play.
Image: By Yusuke Shinyama (Euske) (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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