Darlings, This Cinderella Got Home Just In Time!!!!!!

Girls, I barely avoided turning into a pumpkin, as there was no golden coach to take this Princess home; just the damn BMT!!!!! With a handsome and wonderful Prince Monsieur, who not only made the trip bearable, but enabled me to get through an emotionally fraught evening. Last night, as stated, I attended the reading of a work in progress, entitled "...sorry," inspired by a tragedy so many of us know so well, and which I have made sure MY girls know about--the tragic death of Tyler Clementi. Let me say up front, it IS a work in progress, and it needs some work. But enough has been done to make this an evening as compelling in its own way as "The Laramie Project" or "The Children's Hour." Those two titles passed through my mind as I watched this. The first was an accounting of the gay tragedy of its day--the killing of Matthew Shepard. The second, involving a lie by a child, raises the question, same here, of actions having consequences, which resulted in the suicide of one of the main characters. If Mary had not lied, Martha would be alive. What also floated through my mind was the ad campaign slogan for the 1969 movie, "Bob And Carol And Ted And Alice"--"Consider The Possibilities....." Steven Fisher's play allows the viewer that, as many POV's--some of which I have asked myself--from depression to the notion that the sexuality of the Victim, so says the Defendant, did not make a difference, stating had a woman been present, he still would have live streamed. This may or may not be true, but what "...sorry" makes clear, in its portrait of the tenor of these times, is that, had such been the case, the results would have been far more different, so that maybe we would not be discussing Tyler Clementi right now. Fisher judiciously presents his protagonists as Representations--Any Son, Any Mother, Any Roommate, etc. which both avoids legal hassles and seeks to make the his tragedy emblematic to all--it could have happened anywhere, to anyone. All the conceptual principles he has set in place are fine. And so is his cast. As I commented last evening, in many cases, I was seeing two images simultaneously--the characters the actors are portraying, and the real people themselves. The more remarkable results here is that Zal Owen, as the Roommate, fleshes out and humanizes someone many, including yours truly, have been quick to demonize. I can't say my viewpoint was changed, but he made me think about this person as an individual. As well as the notion that what happened was not intended; no one said, "We are going to make you kill yourself." It can't be denied, though, that what was done, did. Likewise, Dennis Michael Hall's impassioned performance as the Tyler figure is remarkable. He is moving in all counts, but there is a moment, where he stands, stage right, and simply plays the violin, conveying the ecstasy of the artist and the sensitivity of the person at hand, without a word, that reduced me to tears, not unlike the first time I saw the video of Clementi actually playing. I saw Tyler through him, but I also saw myself, and my contemporaries, at that age--the times may change, but the struggle and the yearning do not. Nor does the fact that the options for that yearning remain more limited than those for straights. Was I watching aspects of MY college experience through this???? Honey, you better believe it!!!!! Most interesting of all, in some ways, is Jason Michael Butler as Pete, the only character designated a name, who provides fresh insights into the events. An older, but still closeted, burgeoning gay activist, who connects with a Tyler willing and eager to take those first steps into gay life, is seen as a basically sad individual who cannot really connect himself, who may easily seem heroic to someone as inexperienced as Tyler, but who he, as depicted here, comes to realize the limitations of Pete's value, because he is still controlled by culturally imposed compromises. An interesting, hypothetical portrait of the real case's most enigmatic figure. James Judy and Becky Barta run the spectrum of emotions as the parents; their anger and heartbreak is so palpably felt it grabs you at the throat. In some ways, they are the ones I wanted to hear more from; or, if, not that, seen them more fleshed out. For they at times become almost too Representational; no different, say, from the parents in William Inge's "Splendor In The Grass." If I could offer the playwright a suggestion, it would be to work on these two more, striving for more ambiguous complexity, rather than at times generalized hypothesizing. Am I missing anyone??? Summer Broyhill as the Roommate Girlfriend makes her representation more interesting than I am sure, from what little I have seen, than the actual one truly isn't. And using Burke Moses as Jim McGrevey, as a woven fabric through the piece, in a Stage Manager-"Our Town" kind of way, is helpful in alerting the audience what to focus on and when, as well as giving a generational context to Tyler and others of his generation. The play cries out to be truly staged. Its conceptual structure is perfect for its subject, but it needs more of an arc, or a framework. For example-- In the production, I envisage, the house lights slowly go to black. Sounds--of wind, and traffic, filter in. From below, stage center, the lights come up on Tyler, perched on the bridge. He speaks, we enter his mind, and relive the three days leading up to this moment. The ending should be sharper; the jump, then the quick array of "...sorry"'s. Blackout. But these, like the parents' depictions, are things that can easily be worked out. And there is enough on display, including the gifted and obviously dedicated cast, to show that reworking would only enhance an already solid property. Am I forgetting Berlioz???? How could I????? The macabre irony of his masterwork being what Tyler was working on, is tragically ironic. The parallels--two aspiring artists, reaching out to the world--is apt, though one got a chance that the other was denied. I was SO waiting to hear the haunting section of the piece used by the abusive spouse in the Julia Roberts film, "Sleeping With The Enemy." What was chosen is fine, but this particular segment, I think, needs to be heard when at...the GW. None of us--those who knew Tyler, and those like moi who never met him--having been touched by this young man's tragedy--will ever fully know the answers we so desperately want. "...Sorry " gives contexts for what those answwers might be, but one thing it made abundantly clear to me. Tyler Clementi was betrayed--by his classmates, by the cultrual constraints around him, and by his own youth and inexperience, which prevented him from viewing this as a setback he could move beyond. Like the past colliding in the characters' minds in the musical "Follies," the collusion of events in Tyler Clementi's head was too much for him to bear. Which is why, near the end, when he is perched, and says "You don't get it about suicide!" I wanted an explanation right then and there. I think character and author owe us one here. I wish I could have saved him. I wish I could have grabbed him, dragged him to the nearest theater, sat him through "GWTW", and, as we watch Scarlett refusing to take any crap, say to him, "See? That is how I got through it!" Which IS true, darlings!!!!! Tyler needed a template shown for him to deal with himself and his fitting into the world. But there was no one. Maybe because he couldn't connect, maybe not. I am sorry no one was there, Tyler. I am sorry I wasn't. But rest in the assurance I will not allow you to be forgotten. And, darlings, we must all live, for Tyler, and ourselves, the life he was unable to live!!!!!!! Class dismissed, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!