The title Ironbound packs a punch…
but what does it mean?
Titles are so wonderful, aren’t they? We connect word to image and a whole universe of associations unravels before us. The best titles offer us many ways to read them and Ironbound is no exception! On one layer, Ironbound is a literal place referring to a particular neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey.
This multi-ethnic, deeply working-class neighborhood is the setting of Majok’s play. The name derives from the fact that this neighborhood is “bound” on most sides by railroad tracks, and perhaps because it was formerly a thriving economy driven by the metalwork industry.
Then there are myriad images and themes conjured by thrusting these two words together. What resonates most deeply for me is the paradox of being both bound and liberated by brute strength.
Ironbound reminds us that steeliness, or in this case iron-ess, can wall us in just as much as it can propel us forward. Given that the protagonist, Darja, emigrated from Communist Poland, the title also has echoes of the Iron Curtain.
Rachel Walshe, Director
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