I just saw the Goodman Theater’s production of August Wilson’s Two Train’s Running. It is a great play, and this is a first-rate production in every way. One character, Hambone, is a reification of contracts injustice. Hambone painted a fence for an offstage character, Lutz. Lutz promised to pay Hambone a chicken for his work and a ham if Hambone did an especially good job. Lutz paid Hambone a chicken. This occurred nine years prior to the action in the play. Hambone’s lines in the play consist almost entirely of “Give me my ham!” and “He gonna give me my ham!” At one point, another character teaches him some additional slogans like “Black is beautiful,” but Hambone is never too far from his mantra, as the aggrieved non-breaching party.
Although the play never references R.2d § 228, we are clearly in the realm of conditions of satisfaction. Hambone’s entitlement to the ham should have been determined on an objective basis. All of the characters in the play seem agreed that, were such a standard applied, a finder of fact would certainly award Hambone a ham. But Hambone is Black, poor, and ill-equipped for a legal battle. Lutz is white and so powerful that he is able to define Hambone’s character without ever suffering the indignity of appearing on stage.
Does Hambone ever get his ham? I don’t want to give away too much so I will just say, yes and no.
