The House Of Blue Leaves

Tonight I saw John Guare's play The House Of Blue Leaves at the Lycoming College Theater. I have not been to the theater in a long time so it made more of an impression upon me than usual. I was feeling more poetic about the experience rather than feeling bored. The set was your typical kitchen and living room realism which gives one the impression of being a fly on the wall, a voyeur looking through the window at somebody's private domestic life. The audience was like a circle of ghosts silently watching the living go through the trials and tribulations of life. I found this to be very sad. However, the play does call for some lines of dialogue addressed to the audience so the living did occasionally acknowledge the ghosts witnessing their fate.

According to the college the play is "a comedic story of how far people will go to find fame". I thought the play was more of a tragicomedy rather than a straight comedy because it has some tragic moments. I did appreciate the social commentary the drama makes on how our worship of celebrity undermines our own sense of self worth but the play doesn't really offer any answer or clear advice about how to develop an appreciation for the average, anonymous life. I would suggest that you come to appreciate the extraordinary aspects of your life and personal qualities even if nobody else recognizes it. But the theater is certainly guilty of celebrating pointless displays of talent and treats even polite applause as a major accomplishment that represents the greatest dream a person could have. What bull! For this reason, there are many plays that present failed dreams as a major tragedy without really getting into the value or purpose of the dream in the first place.

But John Guare really developed some exceptionally powerful scenes to sharply criticize the vapid. For example, in one scene Bunny is berating Bananas for not knowing suffering as a film star who can't find her curlers knows suffering. Bananas is mentally ill and to lecture her about mental suffering shows incredible insensitivity. On the other hand, Bananas is strangled by her husband at the end of the play which shows a certain insensitivity towards domestic violence and violence perpetrated against the mentally ill.

Just to mention some other things I noticed. There was a small black and white television on stage which was actually turned on to show film footage of the Pope even though most of the audience would have been unable to see that. And then there was the typical madcap comedy involving nuns running around and acting all hysterical. The usual nunsense.

posted by Robert Robbins @ 11:44 AM