"How I Learned to Drive" Response

I found the play "How I Learned to Drive" to be an extremely difficult and disturbing play to read. Throughout the play, I felt constant sympathy for Li'l Bit as she was misunderstood by her family, not accepted at school, and repeatedly molested by her uncle. Although my thoughts of this character remained steady, I found myself reevaluating my thoughts of Uncle Peck at multiple points in the play. Since the play is not presented to the reader in a sequential way, I found myself both hating and understanding/sympathizing with Uncle Peck.

• At some points, I viewed Uncle Peck as a misunderstood and lonely character who could be sympathized with. Although these bits of dialogue do not cancel out his disgusting actions, they provide the reader with a bit of background that provides hints as to why Peck became the man he was. An example of such dialogue can be found on pg. 442 in a conversation between Peck and Li'l Bit: "I have a fire in my heart and sometimes drinking helps" - Peck.
• On the other hand, most of the play portrays Peck as a pathetic pedophile who obviously had some major issues. I literally had to stop reading the play at times as I was getting so internally angered and sickened by Peck's words and actions toward Li'l Bit. There was a very strong, yet subtle line in the play that disturbed me to a point that Uncle Peck became permanently classified as a nasty and pitiful man. This line can be found in the dialogue between Li'l Bit and Peck on pg. 436. Peck states, "Good question. It doesn't have to be a 'she' --but when you close your eyes and think of someone who responds to your touch--someone who performs just for you and gives you what you ask for--I guess I always see a 'she.'" Every time I read that quote it makes my stomach sink with disgust. I can honestly say I am glad he was dead by the end of the play. 

"Top Girls" Response

Right off the bat, I really enjoyed the realistic style of the play Top Girls. I felt like Churchill did a great job, especially throughout Act I, of structuring the dialogue in an extremely lifelike manner that was easy to relate to. His style allowed me to immediatley relate to the characters, as my girlfriends and myself often carry on conversations very similar to this one. I also thought that the marks in the text indicating areas of interruption by another character added a sense of originality as well as a bit of humor. For example, I particularly liked the dialogue between Isabella and Nijo (on page 353) where they are both not only continually interrupting each other, but also talking about completely different subjects; Isabella talking about her fondness of horses and Nijo speaking of her daughter. 

I also found it very interesting how the topics of conversation throughout the play frequently included male roles as well as fertility/pregnancy/children:

• Examples of fertility/children:
• Nijo: "I never saw my third child after he was born...Ariake died before he was born" (p.353)
• Joan: "Then something changed, my breath started to catch...and the baby just slid out onto the road" (p.352)
• Joyce: "I did get pregnant and I lost it because I was so tired looking after your baby" (p.375)
• Examples of male roles:
• Nijo: "It was always the men who used to get so drunk. I'd be one of the maidens, passing the sake" (p. 346)
• Joan: "I shouldn't have been a woman. Women, children, and lunatics can't be Pope." (p.352)
• Griselda: "But of course a wife must obey her husband" (p.354)
• Win: "There are also fields that are easier for a woman, there is a cosmetic company here where your experience may be relevant" (p.365)
• Mrs. Kidd: "What's it going to do to him working for a woman" (p.367)

I found it very powerful that Churchill included these topics to portray a sense of societal ideologies while centralizing the plot around strong and successful female characters. 

"Krapp's Last Tape" Response #2

After viewing the film version of Krapp's Last Tape in lecture last week, I noticed a very important aspect of the play that I had somewhat missed while reading the text version. While watching, I payed close attention to the elements of lighting and identified the significance of shadows as well as how they add meaning that is both literal and abstract meaning. 

-Firstly, I noticed that the set was lit in a specific way where most of the stage was covered in shadows, leaving the only area of illumination to be Krapp's desk. Although not physical boundaries, these shadows seemed to restrict Krapp's area of movement. He always remained in close proximity to his desk and never interacted with the shadowed areas. I felt that this lighting element added a sense of mystery and wonder to the play: is Krapp hiding something in the dark corners? How/when/why did Krapp's house become so shadowed? Etc.

-Similarly, the element of "shadows" in Krapp's life became more apparent to me as I watched the film version. Although Krapp enjoys listening to the recordings of his past, it is obvious that even the tapes reveal a sense of false happiness. His younger selves obviously hid and suppressed many of the negative aspects of their lives, which is exactly what Krapp continues to do as an old man as he records his final tape. Although comforting at the time, these figurative “shadows” haunt Krapp and leave him as the depressed lonely man we see experience in this play. 

"Krapp's Last Tape" Response

Throughout reading Krapp’s Last Tape I found myself recognizing many similarities between Krapp and Willy from Death of a Salesman:

·         Firstly, the description of Krapp in terms physical appearance immediately reminded me of Willy Loman. The line in Krapp’s Last Tape that explains Krapp’s attire as a “grimy white shirt open at neck, no collar” especially reminded me of Willy’s attire during the garden scene of Death of a Salesman (Beckett, p.333).

·         Also, the fact that both Krapp and Willy are both old men adds to the struggles each character deals with.  Just as Willy spent much of Death of a Salesman reflecting on his younger days of success, Krapp spends most of Krapp’s Last Tape listening to himself from years back and pondering on past occurrences such as his mother’s death and his young lover.

·         Furthermore, I noticed that both Krapp and Willy share the similarity of becoming somewhat senile as they approach the end of their lives. Willy’s nighttime garden scene in Death of a Salesman where he is seen mumbling to himself represents ongoing depression as well as inability to let go of the past. Similarly, I interpreted Krapp’s actions including the constant unlocking and locking of drawers, his fascination with bananas, as well as the random pauses and unstructured speech pattern as a sign of an old man losing his grip with reality.

·         Finally, the end of each play ends similarly for both Krapp and Willy in the sense that they are both left as ultimately defeated and depressed old men. Although Willy ended up killing himself, Krapp’s Last Tape ends with the dialogue “Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness” (Beckett, p.337).



Willy Loman
Image source:
 http://www.alexanderbarnett.com/salesman.html



Krapp
Image source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/8020032/Krapps-Last-Tape-Duchess-Theatre-review.html



"The Cherry Orchard" Response

I found The Cherry Orchard to be a difficult play to fully understand, mostly due to the large number of characters (and Russian names) that were introduced. Because of this, I found myself trying to focus in on each character in an attempt at understanding their relationships and interactions with other characters throughout the play.

The character that I found myself paying close attention to was Firs, the old manservant. I felt a sense of empathy for this character because of the fact that he was belittled frequently and cruelly spoken to. An example of this is when Firs is telling a story about “the old days” and Yasha responds by telling him that he “is getting boring” and that it was time for him “to crawl off and die” (Chekhov, p.300). They ignore the things he says and don’t really seem to care about him until the end of the play when he falls ill.  

I found Firs as a character to correlate with the idea of the cherry orchard. In each case, when things were going normally and neither of them seemed to be in any sort of threat, they were not overly noticed; they just existed on a daily basis.

·         When it was found out that the orchard would be auctioned off, however, it becomes a popular topic of conversation and many people throughout the play spend their time contemplating its fate and hoping the situation has a good turnout.

·         Similarly, when Firs becomes ill, the other characters in the play seemed to pay more attention to him and treat him with more respect.

Because of these similarities, I felt it was appropriate for the cherry orchard to be bought and chopped down as well as Firs to pass away at the end of the play.

“The Importance of being Earnest” Response – What’s in a name?

As I read the play The Importance of being Earnest, I was continually humored in how much importance was placed upon whether the main character’s name was ‘Jack’ or ‘Earnest’:

-Starting out in Act I, Algernon is adamant in ‘Ernest’ first admitting that his actual name is ‘Jack’ and then completely explain why he has two different names. I found it very humorous how Algernon somewhat bribed Jack into telling him “why [he] is Ernest in town and Jack in the country” by calling him a ‘Branburyist’ and refusing to explain until Jack reveals himself (Page 252).

-I found it ironic that in Act I Gwendolen mentions to Jack how much she loves the name Ernest and that she would never consider marrying a man without the name Ernest.

-After Jack fakes Ernest’s death, it is interesting that he is extremely desperate to be christianed Ernest as soon as possible.

- In Act II, I also found it ironic that Cecily says it has always been her dream to love someone with the name Ernest, although it is truly her and Algernon that are engaged.

-Finally, in Act III when almost every conflict is suddenly solved upon the revelation that Jack’s name is actually Ernest, I was in complete shock and somewhat frustrated that a mere name could hold so much significance to the characters of this play.

Throughout the play, I was shocked as to how much importance was placed on a name; something we consider to be a mere label, not means of identity. In today’s society, nicknames (whether similar to your birth name or not) are extremely common. It is just interesting that, contrary to the play, going by a different name would never be the grounds for an upheaval or brawl in current times.

"Interview with Kent Thompson" Response

Throughout reading the interview with Kent Thompson, two of the choices he made while staging Othello really intrigued me:

-Firstly, I was initially surprised by the fact that Thompson chose to stage Othello on the smaller theatre at the festival. At first, I disagreed with his decision as I thought Othello, being the well known and popular play it is, should be performed on the largest stage possible as to allow more individuals to see it. After reading further, however, I came to understand why Thompson made this decision. Since Othello contains so much anger, jealousy, racism, and pain, I do agree that staging it on a smaller stage would make the actor/audience relationship more intimate, creating a more dramatic effect on the audience. With this in mind, I think it would be interesting to see Othello performed on both a large stage and a smaller stage to experience the differences first hand.

- Secondly, I found it interesting that Thompson decided to cast the roles of Desdemona and Iago with actors that were a bit older than usual. As I was reading Othello, I pictured Desdemona as a very strong, intelligent, and reasonable woman. Because of this, I completely respect Thompson for using an older actress to help emphasize these character traits. However, I am less convinced of the need to cast Iago with an older individual. Although I do understand that Iago’s age could have played a role as to why Cassio was chosen over him for the position, I feel that the persona of Iago as a deceitful and manipulative villain would not be portrayed as effectively with an older actor. While I was reading the play, I thought of Iago’s personality flaws as a result of ignorance, which allows me to more easily visualize his role being played by a younger actor.