Fires in the Mirror

Fires in the Mirror is a unique and interesting play because of the format. The monologues of interviews of all kinds of different people give you so many different views that it can be hard to decide what “side” you’re on. I know that as I read I went back and forth on what was “right and wrong.” Considering the situation there were things wrong on both sides, but the other side couldn’t see it, and you’ll also get biased opinions, and bias is actually discussed in “Lousy Language” and how we have so many different kinds of bias. It’s important to understand people from both (cross out) all sides. Not just Blacks and Jews that were directly related to the riots, but also Blacks and Jews that only heard about it, or that have dealt with the racism or discrimination that helped spark the riots. Cutting out the first monologues of Smith's Fires in the Mirror would be like cutting out the exposition to any other play. Just because it's a series of interviews on the Crown Heights riots doesn't mean that an interview that doesn't speak directly to the riots isn't important.

 The very first monologue “Identity” I think is extremely important to the play because identity is so important in our world and people in the riots lost their identity and became either Black or Jewish. The following two monologues “Static” and “ 101 Dalmatians” are sort of like introducing the two “characters” that ultimately make up the show. Static is a small look into a Lubavitcher home and Dalmatians is a look at a black man’s childhood and how he understands his place in his world and in other people’s worlds. So it’s their introduction somewhat, and it’s important to see how a random person from those two identities sees themself and how they talk about themselves rather than from the other point of view. 

Then there is “Mirrors” which I think sheds an important light on the fact that having as many views and points as possible is the only way to keep distortion visible enough to fix. The bigger the telescope (the wider the range of people interviewed) the easier to see distortion (the easier to find the facts or lack of facts, you could say). The rest up until “Lousy Language” are all continuations of characterizing and discussing the life that led up to the riots. You have to have a background of a story to understand the conflict and-hopefully in the end-to be able to get to a resolution. To cut those out would be cutting out what I would call the unbiased accounts of their lives. As soon as you get to monologues directly related to the riots you are seeing one side of it because that is what they are concerned with discussing. Before that, they are simply discussing the life they live, race/racism, and how they deal with it. 

Comment links for Blog Check 2

http://comingsoontotheatrenearyou.blogspot.com/2013/04/buried-life.html?showComment=1365882856221#c7565043886096905573

http://frequentingplays.blogspot.com/2013/04/watering-spoonful.html?showComment=1365883121769

http://chassitycurlean.blogspot.com/2013/03/noises-off.html?showComment=1365883321265#c5122970941511949751

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5029293627620200755&postID=8876999071630251902&page=1&token=1365883486094

http://samcosby2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/show-and-tell-2-all-kings-men.html?showComment=1365883682918#c538882594649673405

http://dontstopmemeow2130.blogspot.com/2013/03/glass-of-water.html?showComment=1365883902900#c9107988578957767638

Detroit

“Not necessarily Detroit,” but Detroit. A confusing choice, maybe, to give your play a name that is not the setting and doesn’t really have anything to do with the show, but a provoking choice. The Time is also “now.” Not present day, but now, so that whenever anyone reads this from now until whenever they will feel as though it was written for their time. I think it’s especially relevant these days with unemployment rates, homelessness, and the economy in general. The fact the it’s specified as “not necessarily Detroit” gives it the ambiguity it needs to be relevant to any city with economic issues, much like the time making it relevant to any time period in the past or future.

The fact that the title is Detroit could be because of the drastic downhill roll the city’s population and economy fell. In fifty or so years, the population was cut by over half. High School dropout rates reached 76% the year the play premiered. Unemployment was at 28.9%, officially, however the actual was believed to be 50% because people had just stopped looking for work, and taking unemployment. Detroit was the quintessential rundown, economic despaired city. That name gave it an image. It instantly gave the audience an idea of what to expect because of what was happening in Detroit, and still is. The setting and time just allow it prevalence in a wider variety. 

Water By the Spoonful

There are many story lines in this play and all of them cross in interesting ways throughout. In particular in Scene Six at the end, the lights come up on Elliot in the gym with the ghost while the chat between Fountainhead, Orangutan, Chutes&Ladders, and Haikumom continues. The chatters have just had a little online intervention with Fountainhead to get him to admit that he is a crack head (a sort of bonding experience, I think).  The chatters are then jokingly talking about their favorite rehab slogans when we see Elliot boxing (which we know he does for aggression although he shouldn't with his leg), we also see the Ghost that's been repeating the Arabic phrase to Elliot as well, and in between the Ghost asks for his passport. We then see Haikumom lose her cool and curse for the first time because her sister is in the paper, and then she realizes it's her death in the paper. 

I think it's so smart to have the realities cross in this way. Until that point we don't know who the chatters are, we know Odessa is somehow related to Elliot and Yaz, but we don't really know what she has to do with the threads in the chat room. This is the first time we are seeing how Elliot is connected to this chat room. It's like in those movies with an overwhelming amount of famous people because the movie isn't good. Like Valentine's Day where all of the stories are connected, it's always interesting to see the way they connect, and this is that moment in this play. Rather than seeing Odessa at the funeral or having her receive a call from Elliot, we see it through the chat room and we also see a bit of Haikumom's real identity.

Buried Child

Buried Child is not a cookie cutter, black and white, this-is-what-this-means type of play. There is a lot of ambiguity surrounding Vince and the crops and, I think, the buried child. The play's setting and lines could fall under realism, yes, because they show a slice of life, with normal dialogue, but there is no real tie up and explanation at the end. The reader is left with questions. 

Who is Vince’s mother? It seems that Tilden might have been the father of the child Dodge drowned so if that baby really is dead then who is Vince, really? If he grew up with the family then who was the mother?

Why after thirty years did crops start growing again? And why didn’t Hallie notice until after Tilden had unburied the baby?

The buried child was Hallie’s, and it is assumed that Tilden was the father, but it isn’t certain. Why did Dodge drowned it if that wasn’t the case?

There are a lot of unanswered questions left by the end of the play and so I don’t think it would be considered a well-made play because the ends aren’t tied up perfectly. Sheppard leaves a lot for the reader to ponder and decide for themselves.

Noises Off

A motif throughout the play is malfunction. Malfunctions of wardrobe, of props, of people even. Sometimes the malfunctions are planned, meaning they were used as sabotage (the cactus-butt problem, shoes tied together). Other malfunctions were completely accidental, but all of them reflect the craziness of the cast in general. The show that they are trying to put on is extremely complicated and the cast is too crazy and caught in their own world to do it. Then there's the malfunctions in the personal lives of all of them, jealousy, love triangles, alcoholism. The fact that Poppy is pregnant and Lloyd is the father while Lloyd really doesn't care about Poppy at all. All the characters are like chickens running around with their heads cut off or, you could say, robots malfunctioning.(mwahha bringing it full circle) 

Choosing a tagline, is hard because at first I wanted to do something with the sardines, because that’s my favorite part about this play is how complicated everything is with the damn sardines. But it’s kind of hard to encapsulate the play with a line about sardines, so the perfect solution is to choose a line that was supposed to be about sardines, but because of the craziness got turned into something else. The perfect tagline for this farce is the final line of the play, "When all around is strife and uncertainty, there's nothing like..a good old-fashioned..plate of curtain!"

Glass of Water

The question of the Protagonist in Glass of Water is a difficult one to answer. It seems at first that Abigail and Masham's story is most prevalent, but soon you see that all the characters stories revolve around one man, Bolingbroke. Bolingbroke has his own motives for everything he helps with and in the end he gets exactly what he wants while ensuring that Masham and Abigail get what they want as well. Bolingbroke is in the center of the Duchess and the Queen’s relationship, the Duchess and Masham’s relationship, the Duchess and Abigail’s relationship, Abigail and Masham’s relationship, and the Queen and Masham’s relationship. He uses all these couples to needle his way into different places so he can be at the right place at the right time. So even when he isn’t on stage, there is either a letter from him, an idea that he planted, or they are expecting him.

            I wouldn’t necessarily say that he is the one Scribe wants the audience to root for the most though. I was rooting for Masham and Abigail (hopeless romantic, I guess, ugh), but for others you certainly aren’t rooting for the Queen, because her character has no gumption or standing, she just sways whichever way the wind is most favorable. The Duchess is also not a favorable character because she is so selfish in her ways. Bolingbroke can also seem selfish at times, but he does still assure Abigail and Masham’s marriage so in a way, you’re rooting for Bolingbroke the entire time because (if) you’re rooting for A and M. Oh, and also peace in England, that’s important. So I take back my first statement, you are rooting for Bolingbroke because he is the only one looking out for more than just himself.