1) Bug was largely about the lifestyle of the fairly happy white lower classed. I may be wrong, but I think every play I have seen about the lower class has featured unhappy individuals struggling against an oppressor for freedom. Bug seemed to show that people like this could still be happy, and that the were taking somewhat good care of themselves (aside from the drugs). The whole concept of living an entire life in a hotel is somewhat foreign, and I thought it worked very well. It allowed the audience to vaguely think someone from management might come in or the maid service might knock to come in and clean. The character dynamic between members of this class was also very original and compelling. We’ve seen plenty of scenes about abusive husbands, but never quite in the way Bug was able to show it. They went to parties, smoked crack and some kind of meth, and were generally enjoying the life they had carved out for themselves.
2) The mental illness aspect of Bug was taken on in a whole new way, and that allowed the play to burst out from underneath hundreds of other plays about similar mental illnesses. This is a good side note – meaning that even a subject that has been done to death can find new life in an examination of it from a different angle. Bug found this angle by allowing the insane people tell the story. Instead of seeing the two for what they genuinely were – mentally ill people – I started to actually see how they could be right. What not? They seemed so convinced of their conspiracy theory that everything started to make complete sense to me. This is the take home message that a play can take characters that appear completely crazy to everyone else, and flip the whole world on its head simply through point of view.
Perhaps Bug is a good reminder of the importance of characters and perspective. No one in the audience liked the abusive character, but even when he tried to save his ex-wife, the audience was completely against him. I know I was happy for the two when they engulfed themselves in flame at the end of the play. The girl’s last monologue was a nice crowning moment for the character because with her understanding of the situation came the audience’s wondering if that situation was actually real. Of course it wasn’t real, but everyone questioned it just for a moment. Powerful writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment