family and the gender analysis of samuel's play
Grampa Wes turned eighty. we had a party, motherfuckers. there were balloons. Pictured above are cousins Kim, Natalie, and Elias. So much so that the balloons took up most of the afternoon.
Found time to see un film et deux pièces, hang out with Meghan, Heather, Shawna, Stephanie, Katlyn, Nico (he goes by only one name now, whatev).
Sam's play was good. It had several well-developed characters, good use of dramatic tension, plenty of gorgeous moments. It was evident that he was a much better director than playwright. Too many loop-holes for people to fall into. Lizzie was forced out of the gender discussion, and therefore had to remain androgynous to be attractive to Robert (Sam), which I thought was a cop-out. All of the women, in fact, gave lousy arguments for the pursuit of equality, and while they were successful cliches, Sam refused to take his argument into fair waters and test it out. Trust me, I know lots of guys who are respectful, and have a brain, and feel hurt by a woman saying she is unequal. Lots of boys get defensive. But there must be something less sappy to say than "why can't we be together." It sounds a lot like "I know you don't need me, but don't you want me?" Inequality is a tough thing for everyone. Here's the thing. This earth is finite. There are only so many jobs, seconds in a day, breaths in a lifetime. So in order for women to empower, men have to lose some of their power. In our culture, this isn't a common perception. We are fond of throwing money at poverty, throwing useless laws at minorities, and carrying on with the business of being superior. Fuck that. In order to stop poverty, we have to be a little less rich. Fin.
Okay, rant over. I liked that Sam was honest, I liked that what he was writing about was very I wrote this the summer before senior year, and valued humor in an intelligent way. I enjoyed it.
My sister's play (which she did not write) was very good as well. It was Oscar Wilde and Jesus talking. Wilde is often quoted as saying jesus is an artist, and his life was his art. It was basically a one act play saying that wilde's life, like that of jesus, was a work of art. Nico's british accent was barely recognizable under his own accented english, but he was very believable, he had a great spirit. The girl who played jesus could have been better, but she held her own well.