Arrange Laborers I saw the play, How I learned to Drive on the last day.
I kind of wish they had done a talk-back after the show because I would have liked to get the actors point of view on the characters and what It was like to play them. Overall, It wasn’t the best play I have ever seen, but It wasn’t bad. I think It was the topics of molestation and Incest that compel my negative feelings toward it. In fact, I left the theater feeling sick to my stomach because of the subject matter. The play made me uncomfortable and almost made me feel bad for the uncle.
When I walked into the Black Box Theater, they had eating arranged on three sides, with the back wall making a backdrop. This was a good set-up. It allowed the actors to interact and allowed the audience to get drawn into the action of the play. If you had sat on the sides, you could also see audience members on the other side. This can be awkward, but also adds a unique touch to the play.
The actors were able to enter, exit, and take props on/often set with ease using the isles on either side of the theater. The set was also well done. The road signs on the floor were well done and added to the emotions of the play.
They started al put together but as you went downstage, the painted signs came apart and scattered.
I think that represented Ill Bit’s life really well. The used car parts added a nice touch. They weren’t brand new and I think the fact that they were rusty reflected Ill Bit’s negative relationship with her uncle. The play used a Modern Greek Chorus as a narrative. Between and sometimes during scenes, the chorus members would appear in the corners of the theater and say something from driving lesions which would hint at emotions the characters would be feeling at the time.
Other times the hours would give introductions to scenes or memories of the character and that created an ominous tone.
It provided insight to Ill Bit’s upbringing, and I think, most importantly, provided comedic relief in the show. That is very important when dealing with such serious topics. When I saw the play, I thought it would start with the first Instance of abuse, and then document Its progression. Instead, when we meet LIE Bit, the abuse has been going on for years, and yet, she still seems to have a sense of control.
What we learn later, Is that her uncle had been telling her for years hat he’d never do anything she didn’t want him to do. The control her character exerts is perhaps a form of role-playing-the abuser letting his victim think they have control, when really they are just a pawn.
The play is haunting, dark, and the substance of the play is not something that everyone can relate to. However, that aside, I felt something for the characters, even the abuser. There is a lot of depth to the play, especially in the way the family discusses sex, and more importantly, the attention Ill Bit’s uncle pays her.
When we first meet her family, they Joke about Ill Bit, and her grandfather goes so far as to say that her “ Breasts turn the corner before she does. ” One of the things I was most struck by was how blunt her family was.
Yet the mall thing that struck me about Ill Bit, and the play, was that the car was both the place where she was safest and also the most afraid. The abuse starts when she Is 11, and he tells her he’ll teach her to drive. She sits on his lap, and he shows her how to hold the steering wheel correctly. However, as she does this, he feels her the car is also the safest place for her, as long as she’s driving.
Since he won’t touch re when she’s driving, that’s the only time she is free from his abuse. Yet, at times, the abuse doesn’t feel as if it’s unwanted. And this is perhaps the most dark and haunting aspect of the piece. The play doesn’t hide from the gritty, dark aspects of Ill Bit’s mind. Ill Bit enters puberty already knowing a thing or two about sex, and we watch her grow up not completely aware that what is going on is wrong.
I often found myself wondering why she didn’t tell anyone about the abuse, but then the scene in which her mother finds the Uncle’s behavior too forthcoming explained.
She does not ant Ill Bit to spend too much time with her uncle, and thinks that he pays too much time and attention to her. In this scene, Ill Bit is naive, young, and full of something she hasn’t had for the entire play: innocence. Her innocence is robbed by two people: her Uncle, and indirectly and perhaps unintentionally, by her mother. When she tells Ill Bit that she can go to the beach with her uncle she places any blame on her.
She says “ If anything happens, remember I hold you responsible. ” Not only is Ill Bit thrust into a world of experiences which she is far too young for, she is held responsible for hem happening.
All of the texts Vive read about dealing with sexual abuse have made one thing clear, and that is that it is never the victim’s fault. The victim often feels guilt, as if the abuse was their fault, as if they asked for it. This play ultimately turns this truth on its head and gives us a world in which characters are left to fend for themselves at a young age.
While Ill Bit spends most of her young life surrounded by family and people, she is isolated. She cannot tell anyone about the abuse. She, at least in her mother’s eyes, will be held responsible.
