The Virginia High School League AA State Theatre Festival was on Tuesday. And, out of the hundred or so schools in our division that competed in the various district and regional competitions, we ended up with 2nd Place in the State (not to brag, or anything…). I’m always so impressed with the high level of work high school students bring to the state competition every year - and I haven’t even watched the AAA State Festival (AAA = larger schools, supposedly better plays).
But there are always a few plays that manage to make it to the State competition which have… shall we say, “objectionable” content. I don’t mean objectionable as in “not suitable for children,” or anything to do with the sex/drug/violence content of the piece. I mean that some of the plays touched on subjects in such a way as to make them irresponsibly offensive and downright distasteful.
Now, I’m not saying that a play shouldn’t “go there.” That is, after all, one of the purposes of live theatre - to bring people to places where they normally wouldn’t go, in some cases because it’s an uncomfortable subject. Just look at the plays that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama - they touch on touchy subjects. And they tend to be very “low-concept,” in the sense that, if they’re done correctly, they’ll be a big hit. Conversely, if any part of it hasn’t been done perfectly, it’s going to fail. Unfortunately, in the case of the plays I’m talking about, they failed in the sense that many people walked away feeling like the author had no business going where he went. The purpose of the play in question was [or at least seemed to be] to satirize how addicted we are to technology. How we can’t get away from our cell phones or computers; even how the news media have become vultures that descend upon tragedy and pain. And this is where the play lost me. It depicted scenes of rape, suicide bombers, people dying in a car crash because they were texting on their cell phone - but in the process of attempting to show how horrible it is that we watch endless news stories on those subjects (and view it as entertainment), the play used those very subjects as a form of entertainment in itself.
It reminded me of another play I saw at States two years ago: “Hitler Goes to Prom.” That play’s premise was to be a parody of all the Holocaust one-act plays that schools put on. In the course of doing this, it depicted Hitler doing fairly horrible things - in a comedic atmosphere that thew most of the audience into hysterical fits of laughter throughout the entire show. Now, had the purpose of the play been to make people laugh, and subsequently make them realize how horrible it was that they were laughing, it might have been a bit more acceptable. But no - it was a comedy. A comedy that played off of a horrible event that killed millions of people. And made you laugh.
This year, the judges seemed to love that type of play. They called it “gutsy” and commended the cast and director for not being afraid to do a piece that has the potential to make people uncomfortable, even angry. And I could understand that - if all the play had done was poke fun at the government or made people ashamed that they were this obsessed with technology. But there were characters that had been raped, characters that had been killed by extremists from the Middle East, or killed in the Virginia Tech shootings, that were crossing the U.S.-Mexican border with incredibly insulting accents. There’s a point when “gutsy” turns into something that’s unnecessarily racist, bigoted, and insensitive.
There is a definite responsibility in live theatre that is sometimes overlooked - the director needs to remember that plays are an imitation of real life; an imitation of real events that involve real people. And when you portray people that have been affected by things like Virginia Tech or rape, you’d better treat them with respect. People were laughing at the rape victim in this play (and didn’t even think to feel bad about it). Because you never know who might be in that audience - a family member of someone who had been killed at Virginia Tech, who’s father had been killed by a suicide bomber, or died in a car crash because the driver was talking on their cell phone. Then you don’t just end up with an audience that feels like throwing up - you end up with people who can’t fall asleep that night, because those two years of emotional recovery were suddenly thrown out the window.
Think before you act.
