After reading Detroit
and hearing everybody talk about the Americna Dream, I figured no play would
serve better as Show and Tell Post #2 than Edward Albee’s The American Dream. This play, in almost every embodiment I’ve seen
it performed…was terrible. I designed for it...and it was terrible. I think,
just maybe, that I’ve figured out why they were all terrible. The answer may be
for once that the play is not terrible, but we just actually aren’t deep enough
to understand it. Ready for this plot?
In The American Dream, Daddy and Mommy live in a house with Grandma. No, I’m not joking...thats the names. They are visited by Mrs. Barker, who after almost immediately stripping down to sexy lingerie, begins to talk to them about a problem they’ve been having, but nobody can remember it. Grandma begins to pile up boxes all around her chair, and she gets yelled at for taking up space. The family bickers about for a little longer before spilling the beans. They want a child, and Mrs. Barker is supposed to get one for them. She got one for them before (they all just forgot it until the end of the play), but it got mutilated and then died because it was a bad kid. So Mrs. Barker gives them the American Dream, Grandma moves out with all her stuff in boxes (even her room is packed into a box, somehow), and the play ends on a happy bump.
Whut? I’m still confused too, don’t worry. I think the big thing here is to try and make sense of this play, because every time I read it I FEEL like it is awesome. But every time I see it, I feel disappointed. I really can feel the potential when I read The American Dream. Please forgive that slightly ironically funny representation of the plot, because while it is a zany show, it definitely tackles some big things about how American is becoming a giant façade, and how the modern family dynamic isn’t really a family anymore. This show has some big issues, and really can show them off beautifully. This is due to a few key choices by Albee.
The first, obviously, is the use of expressionism. Characters in this play are named by what they are or what they do. Realism is so far from the goal here that it becomes kind of comical to try and imagine this as a straight play. In fact, using the lack of realism gives the play room to talk about serious issues like America essentially ruining itself behind this fake screen of corporations, material goods, and popular garbage. It could not make the bold nation-wide statements it pushes forward if it had been a realistic play. Either people would grow angry at the play, and turn off the idea of being affected, or they would push away the ideas as “more boring political dribble,” and file it away to never be used again. By keeping the audience on their toes, little bitty nuggets of delicious information sneak on in there, like how the American Dream, as a character, is a hollowed shell. There is not real wall separating that message. The American Dream is a hollow shell of its former self. I don’t think we could’ve said it that plainly if we hadn’t just spent half an hour or more readjusting our audiences perceptions of this reality.
In The American Dream, Daddy and Mommy live in a house with Grandma. No, I’m not joking...thats the names. They are visited by Mrs. Barker, who after almost immediately stripping down to sexy lingerie, begins to talk to them about a problem they’ve been having, but nobody can remember it. Grandma begins to pile up boxes all around her chair, and she gets yelled at for taking up space. The family bickers about for a little longer before spilling the beans. They want a child, and Mrs. Barker is supposed to get one for them. She got one for them before (they all just forgot it until the end of the play), but it got mutilated and then died because it was a bad kid. So Mrs. Barker gives them the American Dream, Grandma moves out with all her stuff in boxes (even her room is packed into a box, somehow), and the play ends on a happy bump.
Whut? I’m still confused too, don’t worry. I think the big thing here is to try and make sense of this play, because every time I read it I FEEL like it is awesome. But every time I see it, I feel disappointed. I really can feel the potential when I read The American Dream. Please forgive that slightly ironically funny representation of the plot, because while it is a zany show, it definitely tackles some big things about how American is becoming a giant façade, and how the modern family dynamic isn’t really a family anymore. This show has some big issues, and really can show them off beautifully. This is due to a few key choices by Albee.
The first, obviously, is the use of expressionism. Characters in this play are named by what they are or what they do. Realism is so far from the goal here that it becomes kind of comical to try and imagine this as a straight play. In fact, using the lack of realism gives the play room to talk about serious issues like America essentially ruining itself behind this fake screen of corporations, material goods, and popular garbage. It could not make the bold nation-wide statements it pushes forward if it had been a realistic play. Either people would grow angry at the play, and turn off the idea of being affected, or they would push away the ideas as “more boring political dribble,” and file it away to never be used again. By keeping the audience on their toes, little bitty nuggets of delicious information sneak on in there, like how the American Dream, as a character, is a hollowed shell. There is not real wall separating that message. The American Dream is a hollow shell of its former self. I don’t think we could’ve said it that plainly if we hadn’t just spent half an hour or more readjusting our audiences perceptions of this reality.
This makes the second relevant dramaturgical choice to be
the motif of forgetfulness. People in this play are forgetting where they put
things, what other people are saying to them, why they invited Mrs. Barker to
their house, the previous services she has done for them, and even the rules of
society. When in doubt, they feel free to invent an answer. This choice has the
brilliant effect of making every answer suspect. Again, it works in a similar
vein to the zaniness of expressionism. If we don’t trust anything that is said
or happens, then we’ll really use our brain to deduce our own truths. We may
accidentally think for a while on the message of the play, which is the
destruction of our country from within, much like this family did to itself.
So, give the play a shot. I don’t know how well it is to be staged, but I can imagine in my head a very zippy, zany, almost comical play on this script that would be very effective, especially when it slowed down and sobered up to really deliver the messages of the play. It is definitely worth reading. Just maybe not worth watching as much…
So, give the play a shot. I don’t know how well it is to be staged, but I can imagine in my head a very zippy, zany, almost comical play on this script that would be very effective, especially when it slowed down and sobered up to really deliver the messages of the play. It is definitely worth reading. Just maybe not worth watching as much…
As a light board operator for a lab production of this play, I feel qualified to say exactly what Albee had intended when writing this play.
ReplyDeleteOkay, actually, it's pretty dense, and that's coming from a pretty big Albee fan. I entirely agree with your perceptions of the script--it reads like a great, thoughtful satire. It just seems that, when it's staged, the actors don't really know what they're saying.
I'm quick to assume that if something is too "weird" for me that I probably just am not bright enough to comprehend it fully, so that's largely my opinion of this play. However, I think it should be noted that this play does not really exist in a vacuum; it has a very close relationship to the even shorter play The Sandbox, which is a little more comprehensible. I find that The Sandbox can definitely help one to understand The American Dream, but I suppose I'm only assuming that the two are thematically consistent. In all fairness, they might both be making entirely different statements, for all I know!
But, if nothing else, at least it means that we can get a firmer understanding of the characters, right? Well, maybe. With names like Daddy, Mommy, and Grandma, we can't even really assume that they're the same characters.
Also, I must say, the themes of the destruction of the American nuclear family is quite prophetic for a play from 1961. The nuclear family is generally considered a 50s stereotype, so Albee isn't really looking too far into the past here.
I despise this play...so this should be fun. I understand where you're coming by saying that we aren't deep enough to understand it, if you are talking specifically about college students. I have read this play and seen it performed. First off, I've asked the actors and director what the eff it's talking about and no one could give me a straight answer. If you don't understand the play you're performing/directing then you shouldn't be doing it! Just saying!
ReplyDeleteLike Jordan, I'm quick to say that if something is too weird then I just "didn't get it", but I'm not so sure in this case. I've had it "explained" to me by PhD students and even they couldn't give me solid understanding so I'm starting to wonder if this goes beyond college students not understanding it. In defense of the play though, it is a continuation of The Sandbox (...or something like that. I don't know. They're supposed to help each other out or something) and I've never read The Sandbox, so maybe that's what we're all missing.
I agree with you Cory, although my opinion may not be as strong. I’ve never read the entire script of The American Dream, but I think I know what it’s supposed to convey. I’ve only seen it once which was here and we all know how that went, but I don’t think this is a play meant to entertain, you know? If anything, I think this play is about the accepted norms and status quo of American society. It’s extremely gritty in a polite way, covering several issues this country has to offer but it could be a lot stronger with a few changes here and there, although I’m not Albee. Maybe he wanted to portray his feelings in such a subtle way to cause outrage-he definitely got us talking about it haha. Or maybe we just can't relate to it the way we "want to" if that makes sense. It doesn't appear to be a poorly written play from the bit I did read and there's definitely lots of potential there, but maybe it's one of those things where there's more to it than meets the eye.
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