I have been to more on-campus events this semester than in any previous semester in my time here at Southwestern. Not sure why this is, but I am going to chalk it up to me growing up and rediscovering the reasons why I came to Southwestern in the first place. Anyway, the event I decided to write about is the most recent of the events that I have been to, the theatre department's production of Escape from Happiness.
In the play, we find ourselves thrown into the life of a family in turmoil, due to the accusations made against them due to the presence of hidden drugs in a bag in their basement. We witness the transformation of the father, an ex-cop who has supposedly been reduced to a shadow of his former self by Alzheimer's disease, from a blithering, stumbling old man into a criminal mastermind who has been pretending for the purposes of reconciling with his family members. He has recruited the help of his daughter's husband to rid the neighborhood of crime so that his family members might finally come to terms with the things he put them through during previous years, when his alcoholism caused a familial rift. All of this is staged within the kitchen of the family.
Not only does the play take us on the journey of discovering the truth behind the drugs' presence in the basement, it does so in a way that explores the depth of relations between the members of a damaged, seriously dysfunctional family. To stay funny amidst the seriousness of the subject matter, the play relies on the ability of the actors to subtlety insert the proper amount of sarcasm and cynicism into their lines.
At a liberal arts school like Southwestern, I feel that attending theatre productions is a good way to get some insight into not only the world of the performing arts, but also into the emotions that are conveyed in said productions and the messages communicated through them. I feel that this play not only depicted a dysfunctional family in a rather strange situation, but it also depicted a group of people who struggle with problems that sometimes have no solution. The message communicated through the story of this family, or at least the one I took away, is that just as blood has the power to bond us together, so can it tear us apart. What I mean by this in the context of the play is that we are bonded by blood to our family members, but when that bond of blood is betrayed or desecrated in some way, it hurts more than if a complete stranger had done the same thing. Coming from a strong family background, I cannot imagine what it would be like to not have my family members in my life, or what it would be like to have to deal with a rift in my familial unit, a rift like the one in the play.
Good works of art, in my opinion, evoke some sort of personal emotion in the viewer. One that sometimes cannot be explained or understood. In the case of Escape from Happiness, my connection is that of the complete opposite family situation in which I was raised. I have spoken about my family numerous times in Paideia sessions as they form an integral part of who I am. When times are tough, I turn to my family to help me get through. I define myself in terms of my relationships with others, my family being the single biggest influence upon the person I am today. I can't imagine what it would be like to not have family connections and bonds that I can always depend on. Sure, my family has its problems, like any normal family, but the presence of problems just signals that at least the family is communicating with each other, as opposed to bottling up all their emotions inside in order to keep the peace.
Family relations is very relevant when one considers the topic of human behavior. Families represent the most basic of social structures, one that has evolved over the millennia in order to better the survival chances of humans and to fulfill our need for social interaction. The complex nature of the modern familial structure is much more developed than those of early humans. This is good in some ways and bad in others. In the case of the family from the play, a rift has formed that probably wouldn't have had the characters not been family members, an example of a bad effect of the modern family structure. But, in this same family, one sees the ruthless lawyer daughter who fights to protect her family and will go to any lengths to accomplish her goals. This illustrates the strength of familial bonds.
I was not expecting to come to Southwestern and be a regular attendee of theatre department plays and musicals, yet that is exactly what I have become. The production values are much higher than what I would expect here at Southwestern and the actors are all immensely talented. If they continue to put on moving performances that allow the audience to think instead of just blindly consuming that which is occurring onstage, you can expect to see me in line for my tickets as soon as they are available.
Brady
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