HANDS

Book, Lyrics and Co-composer   Noelle Donfeld

Co-composer and arrangements    Nathan Wang   

Synopsis

     A suspenseful adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Hands follows the journey of a courageous slave, Tom Shelby, as he struggles to counter the inhumane influence and power of a superstitious slave trader over his fellow slaves.

     Act 1:  It is the 1830’s and Tom Shelby, the overseer on a failing Kentucky farm allows himself to be sold to a sinister slave trader, Simon Legree, to protect his fellow slaves.  Aiding the escape of a young woman and her child, Tom engenders the hatred of Legree, who is determined to break him.  On a ship en route to New Orleans , Tom is noticed by Eva St. Clare, an ailing young girl, who convinces her wealthy, dilettante father to purchase Tom.   Although life with Eva at the St. Clare estate in New Orleans is pleasant, Tom longs to return to his beloved wife, Chloe, and children.   Eva’s aunt becomes jealous of the child’s familial relationship with Tom, and when both Eva and her father die, the aunt destroys Tom’s emancipation papers and sends him to the auction block with the other St. Clare slaves.  Tom’s only memento of Eva is a lock of her blond hair.  At the auction, Legree, seeing Tom and determined to get revenge, buys Tom once more.

     Act 2:  At Legree’s hellish plantation, Tom risks his life to prevent the rape of a young slave, with the help from Legree’s Haitian mistress, Cassie.  As Legree’s slave henchmen beat Tom, they discover the lock of Eva’s hair, which Legree mistakes for that of his dead mother.  Preying on Legree’s superstition, Cassie and Tom convince Legree that his mother’s ghost is in his garret, which allows Cassie and another young slave to hide there safely before they escape.  Refusing to search for the slaves, Tom angrily confronts Legree and is beaten to the point of death.  Rather than condemn the slaves who have beaten him, he tells them he’d gladly die to save their souls.  The henchmen are finally affected by Tom’s compassion and turn on Legree, locking him in the garret with “his mother’s ghost”.  As Tom lies dying, his wife and his former master in Kentucky , whose fortune has improved, arrive to buy him back.  Tom is reunited with his beloved wife as the other slaves prepare for a mass escape.

LYRICS FROM HANDS
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