Hi everybody,
I saw a revival this week of a play from the late 1940’s by Moss Hart entitled "Light Up the Sky."
The subtext of the play concerns narcissism in the professional theater community, and how best a young, idealistic playwright can deal with it. The play highlighted some of the issues I have with plays and play writing. If the play were written “straight up,” it would not have been a simple comedy, although funny (at least to me, in many aspects). Instead the narcissistic characters are caricatures—written to be “over the top” in order to get laughs throughout the performance. This lessens the horror of who they truly are as human beings, and makes both the characters and the play easily dismissible. But, and this is a big BUT, the caricatures make the play more appealing to a general audience—and of course, crowd appeal sells seats. Hart includes one old, seasoned, non-narcissistic playwright character to guide the idealistic young playwright—and in a sense this is the most affective part of the play. But all punches are pulled at the end. The play everyone thought was a dud because of the audience reaction gets superb reviews—which makes it possible for everyone, whether narcissistic or not, able to once again stroke each other’s egos and continue working together. So the play has a “happy ending.”
The happy ending reminded me that the organization that puts on the Boston Theater Marathon—the Boston Playwrights Theater (part of Boston University) recently sent out a fund raising letter that stated that playwriting was about “optimism.” I was surprised that an organization associated with an academic institution would characterize playwriting in this way. As I’ve said many times here, I’m a “Chekhovian”: I’ve always agreed with his advice to young writers: “Tell the truth.” The truth is not always optimistic. One of my all time favorite plays is “Death of a Salesman”—hardly optimistic! And, of course, Shakespeare wrote tragedies as well as comedies. So, for me, playwriting (and viewing plays) is not about “optimism” but rather, not being so alone in the world. Sometimes, that involves reading fiction and non-fiction, watching plays/movies, or having someone sitting next to you, in front of you—or even “inside of you” (e.g. when people important to you have died)—sharing your experience of life’s limitations, losses, tragedies, as well as joys, happiness, and success.
Richard
