Frankie and Johnny Were (Very Public) Lovers
Yesterday, I ushered Frankie and Johnny, at Arena Stage. I'd heard about the play before, but I'd never seen it. In fact, what I'd heard got crossed in my mind with some other story - I was expecting some brutal domination play about how men treat women like possessions (and worse) - sort of a Harold Pinter meets Sam Shepard in a Terence McNally (who really *did* write this) play.
Instead, I was treated to a wonderful dialog on the nature of intimacy - physical (as the house manager said, most plays climax in the *final* scene, not the first - and no, that's not a spoiler, because once the curtain goes up, well...) but also emotional. Primarily emotional.
The two main characters are "everyman" and "everywoman", except that they have very little in common with most of the people that I work and live with, day in, day out. They are middle-aged (OK, so that's not so foreign :-) ), under-educated (Frankie never finished high school), working class (she's a waitress; he's a short-order cook), paycheck-to-paycheck people. They're also dreamers, romantics, hope-ers, wish-ers. The depiction of this couple was crucially, essentially honest.
Honesty isn't a trait I've been striving for in the GIRL'S GUIDE books - it's not one of they key features of the genre, after all. But I still love seeing it portrayed, in vibrant, living color.
Mindy, who would have found the play *devastating* at other times in her life...
Instead, I was treated to a wonderful dialog on the nature of intimacy - physical (as the house manager said, most plays climax in the *final* scene, not the first - and no, that's not a spoiler, because once the curtain goes up, well...) but also emotional. Primarily emotional.
The two main characters are "everyman" and "everywoman", except that they have very little in common with most of the people that I work and live with, day in, day out. They are middle-aged (OK, so that's not so foreign :-) ), under-educated (Frankie never finished high school), working class (she's a waitress; he's a short-order cook), paycheck-to-paycheck people. They're also dreamers, romantics, hope-ers, wish-ers. The depiction of this couple was crucially, essentially honest.
Honesty isn't a trait I've been striving for in the GIRL'S GUIDE books - it's not one of they key features of the genre, after all. But I still love seeing it portrayed, in vibrant, living color.
Mindy, who would have found the play *devastating* at other times in her life...
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