This play was really strange to me. It wasn’t extremely
abstract or terribly confusing—which is part of what made it so weird. Anything
that was odd was very subtle. Throughout reading the whole play I felt myself
becoming more and more uncomfortable but I couldn’t quite determine why.
Everything just seemed to be a little off.
It was like walking into your bedroom, realizing a picture was tilted
and something was missing from your nightstand. You are in a familiar place,
but it’s been compromised. From then on you are just waiting for something bad
or weird to happen. Both couples seem to be ‘normal’ and nice. However, as the
play unfolds, characters constantly reveal something very personal about
themselves This contributes to the overall ‘icky’ feeling of the play because
it seems as if they are making themselves just a little too vulnerable. Something bad is
bound to happen but the entire time they are oddly nonchalant and comfortable
with one another.
As far as
the title goes, I don’t think it really mattered what city the play was named
after. There is ultimately a feeling of ambiguity and familiarity surrounding
the script. Although these are almost contrasting ideas, they seem to combine
together to create the theme of “Detroit”. The name didn’t have to be Detroit, I think it
could have been any ‘average’, mid-sized American city with a suburb. The play
needed a non-specific, known but not special setting. I think the whole point
of the play is to show that no one really ever KNOWS anyone. Even the kindest,
most open and friendly neighbors could be recovering crackheads who eventually
burn your house down. The play needed to
occur in a country, in a city, in a town, in a neighborhood, and in a home. Where the exact location of the country,
city, town, neighborhood, and house is has no bearing on the fact that people
are people. And people are unpredictable no matter where they live. Lisa D’Amour
wanted an easily recognizable city as her title, but it didn’t really matter
which one. Thus, this theme of ambiguity and familiarity is reinforced.
I agree that the title probably could have been any urban city, but I think there is a reason Hudes specifically chose Detroit. I literally just did a little research and saw that Detroit has a very high rate of drug misuse or drug abuse. I think this is the actual reason why Hudes chose to use Detroit as the title. Hudes anted to highlight this fact and, I suppose, emphasize on its effects on real people.
ReplyDeleteI got that same feeling while I was reading it. The first scene was comfortable and didn't show any evidence of something going that terribly wrong. However, I knew from the character descriptions that Sharon and Kenny were recovering addicts so something would happen with that since it was such an important trait. I got really, really uncomfortable as the play went on though, especially during that crazy rave-like scene.
ReplyDeleteI'm can totally see your argument with it being called any of those cities, and honestly, I don't think D'amour would hate it if you changed the name to fit your production. She was constantly saying "you can do this, or this, or that" throughout the stage directions, so she's very lenient to what you can do.
Totally agree a really weird play it almost felt like I was just reading a transcript of two weird couple who just hungout together than reading a play. This supports you statement that it could have been any city it didn't have to be Detroit because recovering crackheads are everywhere im sure and it doesn't seem like anything in the script was specifically meant for the city Detroit.
ReplyDeleteI believe you are correct in the assumption that D’Amour intended the setting to represent any city and not specifically Detroit. Also I agree that she wanted a recognizable city in her title and that the overall concept was that these people could be anywhere in any city. I personally greatly wonder if there is though a specific reason she chose Detroit when taking the language of the text and the major themes of the story into consideration.
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