Act Without Words

Samuel Beckett's Act Without Words is a great work that begins to look at other approaches other than dialogue to create the writers vision. I find Beckett's idea ingenious. By omitting dialogue in this act the play becomes something more barbaric, more minimalistic, which in turn creates humor at a primitive level. I also like how in this act we never know if the man is actually seeing stuff come from the sky or if he is hallucinating. This leaves an unanswered question to the viewer and adds to the humor of this act. Overall I feel this act has a dark sense of humor to it because the man stranded in the desert is teased by the carafe of water but he is never able to obtain it and in the end he even gives up on the hope of ever obtaining the carafe.

Mud

In Mud I felt Maria Fornes' created a work that is outlandish in a lot of ways but also seems to mirror reality in a way that gives the reader strong emotional ties to the action happening through out the play. I feel that in Fornes' characters Fornes give them each child-like traits but yet they don't come off as being innocent. They are put into situations were they manipulate each other for there own common good. Such as how Llyod takes Henry's money or how Henry takes Mae's money but they do it in way like a kid would do. It almost seems as if they lack the idea of morals. Another thing I felt that brought a lot to this work was the use of the reference of the hermit crab and the star fish. The star fish foreshadowed the last scene while the hermit crab was a metaphor for what was going on between Llyod and Henry. I felt this element highlighted the situation and made suspense in what was going to happen next.

The Piano Lesson

In The Piano Lesson I felt the characters in the play and the way he built up each character put a lot of strength into the play. Unlike the last few plays we have read this play develops the characters in a way were a personal connection is felt towards each character. An example of this is how throughout the work sympathy is felt towards Berniece and no sympathy is felt towards Boy Willie. By Wilson developing the motives of each character carefully he is able to engage the reader further in the story with the personal connection given to each character. Another thing I liked about this work was how Wilson used the past of each character to give rise to the action of the play. At the beginning of the play the character's past were all hinted at, besides Doaker and Maretha, but there was gaps left in the character's past. Gradually these gaps were filled which helped build the suspense in the story and also it kept the reader guessing on the characteristics of each character.

A Piece of Lettuce, for Christ's Sake

CHARCTERS

Girl

Guy

 SETTING: Lounge in a music school.

 

Girl: I choked on lettuce today. I thought I was going to die. It like just got stuck in my throat and my friend started laughing…

 

Guy: (Laughing) How do you choke on lettuce?

 

Girl: Shut up! It was so embarrassing!

 

Guy: I knew this guy once that choked to death.

 

Girl: (Surprised and hesitant) Really? What did he choke on?

 

Guy: I think a piece of steak… (Thinking) … Actually I think he got hanged. Yeah that’s right. Now I remember. Well really what’s the difference?

 

Girl: Not much. I mean the #1 is not that different from the #2. Like they’re both numbers. The difference of 2 and 1 is 1. (Excited about her discovery) So really they’re the same.

 

Guy: His father hung him.

 

Girl: My father was a good guy but he always wanted to join the circus.

 

Guy: That’s odd, my shirts inside out.

 

Girl: (Laughing) You dumbass, your shirt’s been inside out the whole day. I just didn’t have the heart to tell you.

 

Guy: (Bitterly) You never have the heart to do anything right.

 

Girl: Oh fuck you! Like you never choked on lettuce before. Don’t pretend to be perfect. Your shirt’s inside out for Christ’s sake.

 

Guy: It’s not my fault my shirt chose to be inside out today.

 

Girl: Are you all right? That’s what my friend should of said when I was choking on that damn piece of lettuce.

 

Guy: The mother convinced the father to hang him. I don’t blame her. I mean…

 

Girl: (Interrupting) What has this world come to? It’s just absurd that she couldn’t ask if I was all right. What’s wrong with people today?

 

Guy: I mean their son had it coming to him. You know he refused to tuck in his shirt at fancy restaurants? People just don’t have manners today.

 

Girl: Exactly.

 

Guy: Exactly.

August Wilson & The Philadelphia

I found August Wilson's monologue brilliant.  The writing is simple yet effective and tasteful. His use of diction for Sam gives the feel that Sam is down to Earth and even without reading the description one can see that Sam has approached life honestly by what he says. I also like the irony at the end when Mr. Collins interrupts Sam. I feel this also highlights a theme of absurdity in life where it does not matter if what your saying is right but what matters is the qualifications you have. In other words, representation is held higher than reality.

 

The things I want to take from this work is Wilson's use of lyricism in his dialogue while creating a diction that stays true to the character and the overall work. Also I want to take the idea of using irony to create humor and have it be able to intertwine with other aspects of the work for the piece to come together so that the characters' dialogue is set equivalent to their actions.

 

The Philadelphia was absurdity at it's finest. With the lack of transitions between ideas and also with a lack in pretty much everything conventional David Ives dose not have limits on where he can go with his work. This creates humor because the reader or someone seeing the play dose not know what to expect. Also identifying absurdities presented around a character by saying that they fell in pocket, a black hole called Philadelphia is genius. I don't even think Donald Barthelme could beat that idea. 

 

The things I want to take from this work is the way Ives pokes fun at something, such as Philadelphia or Cleveland, and be able to use it as he does. For example, "you're in a Philadelphia. That's all."  Calling some ones situation a Philadelphia is humorous on many different levels. Also, I would like to take his overall use of the absurd and try to put it in my writing.

The Cuban Swimmer

In Sanchez-Scott's play The Cuban Swimmer I picked up on two aspects of her writing that I thought really contributed to the overall artistic feel of her work. First of all, I found that her use of "magic realism" was effective because of how it was used in a way where it almost can be over looked. An example of this is the scene where Margarita says she can "hear them (the fish) whispering... laughing at me..." This scene is written in a way where it's unknown if the fish really are laughing at her, biting her and so on. By the way Sanchez-Scott uses "magic realism" she begins to create a reflection of life rather than a copy of life, in essence art is the reflection of life. The second thing that I felt contributed to the over feel and style of this work was how she portrayed the Cuban family with her choice of diction. The family speaking spanish created a modernistic approach in creating the style by adding colour to the play's word choice. I felt these two aspects made the play and it's these aspects I want to take ideas from to add to my writing.