Okay, look, I get it, two-handers are tough. You have two characters with which to tell your story, and you have to somehow tell this story with as little exposition as possible. You have to show, not tell.
Are you listening, Donja Love?
Love's current play, Fireflies, tells the story of a married African American couple in 1963. He's a preacher, traveling the southern part of the country to speak at the funerals of other African Americans who have died due to racial terrorism. (When the play begins, the church bombing that claimed the lives of four little girls in Birmingham has just occurs.) She's a doting and devoted housewife who goes so far as to write her husband's speeches and sermons for him. But what her husband, Charles, doesn't know is that she secretly smokes, she wants to abort the baby she's carrying, and she writes explicit letters to a woman she's in love with whom she only met once, briefly. Oh, and did I mention she, Olivia, has PTSD about bombs going off? (This is apparent from the ugly Windows 95 screensaver projections. The sky is red and orange!)
Olivia sounds like a really complicated, interesting woman. And there is something great about a play whose protagonist is a Black woman during the Civil Rights era who is questioning her sexuality, who does not want to be submissive to her philandering, abusive, alcoholic husband, who does not want to bring a child into a world that is constantly murdering them.
Sadly, Olivia is an interesting character in search of a good play.
The Charles/Olivia dynamic is pretty cliched. He expects her to be a submissive, loyal wife who acts ladylike (i.e. does not smoke) and gives him sex anytime he wants. So truly, Love does not have anything new to say about the husband and wife dynamic. Even having Charles be an asshole to his wife isn't anything new.
And what about Olivia? Well, like I said, she is very interesting and progressive. But Love uses her letters to Ruby, the woman (or idea of the woman) she is obsessed with, and to God, to get us into her head. He uses them as exposition to get across what is happening in this world. Olivia's experience at the abortion clinic, during which she is essentially raped by the doctor, is told to us through the guise of a letter to God.
So what happens in the end? After Olivia decides she's going to come clean to Charles that she desires another woman, an abortion, and to leave him? Well, Charles conveniently dies in a bombing on his way to speak at the funeral of the four little girls who have died. Right, a bombing. Like the bombings that still haunt Olivia. (The hand could not be heavier.) And while she doesn't really know what to do, how to move on with her life, Charles' death doesn't force her to do anything. She doesn't have to make the choice to leave her husband and live her truth. The choice was made for her. And now what, she'll have the baby? She'll carry it and give birth, even though her circumstances are worse as a widow? Sure, okay, if you want to argue that this will allow her to become a stronger woman, I'll allow it BUT this is only because something has happened to her. She is passive, not active. And it feels like a cop out.
Are you listening, Donja Love?
Love's current play, Fireflies, tells the story of a married African American couple in 1963. He's a preacher, traveling the southern part of the country to speak at the funerals of other African Americans who have died due to racial terrorism. (When the play begins, the church bombing that claimed the lives of four little girls in Birmingham has just occurs.) She's a doting and devoted housewife who goes so far as to write her husband's speeches and sermons for him. But what her husband, Charles, doesn't know is that she secretly smokes, she wants to abort the baby she's carrying, and she writes explicit letters to a woman she's in love with whom she only met once, briefly. Oh, and did I mention she, Olivia, has PTSD about bombs going off? (This is apparent from the ugly Windows 95 screensaver projections. The sky is red and orange!)
Olivia sounds like a really complicated, interesting woman. And there is something great about a play whose protagonist is a Black woman during the Civil Rights era who is questioning her sexuality, who does not want to be submissive to her philandering, abusive, alcoholic husband, who does not want to bring a child into a world that is constantly murdering them.
Sadly, Olivia is an interesting character in search of a good play.
The Charles/Olivia dynamic is pretty cliched. He expects her to be a submissive, loyal wife who acts ladylike (i.e. does not smoke) and gives him sex anytime he wants. So truly, Love does not have anything new to say about the husband and wife dynamic. Even having Charles be an asshole to his wife isn't anything new.
And what about Olivia? Well, like I said, she is very interesting and progressive. But Love uses her letters to Ruby, the woman (or idea of the woman) she is obsessed with, and to God, to get us into her head. He uses them as exposition to get across what is happening in this world. Olivia's experience at the abortion clinic, during which she is essentially raped by the doctor, is told to us through the guise of a letter to God.
So what happens in the end? After Olivia decides she's going to come clean to Charles that she desires another woman, an abortion, and to leave him? Well, Charles conveniently dies in a bombing on his way to speak at the funeral of the four little girls who have died. Right, a bombing. Like the bombings that still haunt Olivia. (The hand could not be heavier.) And while she doesn't really know what to do, how to move on with her life, Charles' death doesn't force her to do anything. She doesn't have to make the choice to leave her husband and live her truth. The choice was made for her. And now what, she'll have the baby? She'll carry it and give birth, even though her circumstances are worse as a widow? Sure, okay, if you want to argue that this will allow her to become a stronger woman, I'll allow it BUT this is only because something has happened to her. She is passive, not active. And it feels like a cop out.
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