Breaking Character: How do people change? Can they transform themselves? Is there a singular moment? Or does change occur as a series of events? Could it be caused by a particular person? Playwright Jen Silverman was inspired by the notion of how and why we evolve. “I’ve been particularly interested in stories of how people transform themselves, or in people who are drawn or driven to a point in their lives where no choice is left to them but self-transformation.” In The Roommate, a pair of characters find that the table that’s propped up their lives has been overturned. Whether they or someone else pushed it over, what happens next?
2 comments:
wow this play sounds really interesting. I like what the playwright said about one reason she chose to right this play. The fact that their are not many roles for older women that are not focused on their children or their husband. I think that this is a great reason. Women are so complex and especially because women are the most interesting people for what their role is in society. I also think that the contrasting dynamics in this play make it an exciting relationship that definitely makes room for transformations and new experiences. I would like to see this play simply to see what changes these women bring out in each other and what kind of women they are at the end of the play. Overall, I think the study of why humans change and what makes a person themselves through the things they have experienced in their lives has always been fascinating and I can't wait to hear what others think of it.
First, I like that this play is about women in their 50s, since that isn’t particularly common. However, I can’t say this article makes me feel like this is going to be a good play, though that might just be because of some issues I have with the way it is framed.
I find that certain personality traits tend to be ascribed to certain types of people. The heterosexual woman who lives in Iowa is traditional, lives a fairly mundane life, and enjoys things like book clubs. The vegan lesbian from the Bronx is a wild, rule-breaking, risk taker. These characters, based on this article, seem to fit into these tropes.
But there is nothing about being vegan or lesbian or most recently from the Bronx that would make someone more likely to be adventurous and spontaneous than anything else. Maybe she is very calm. Maybe she is extremely cautious. Maybe even problematically so. A lesbian vegan from the Bronx could be very shy and reserved. There are probably many women who are lesbian and don’t use or consume animal products who live in any number of places and don’t fit the expectation of “lesbian vegan”.
And as for the married woman in her mid 50s who raised kids. My mom fits that description. She also can deadlift about 360 pounds. I’m not sure if she has ever attended a book club.
So, when I read this description, it seemed like a story I heard before. Two people who fit in with the stereotypes ascribed to a handful of traits about them are very different, are forced together by some circumstances (roommates, co-workers, in-laws, etc.) and then hilarity and personal growth ensues. Maybe the play itself is different, and maybe the article is just framed this way because the point of the play is to go in thinking it will be similar to what you’ve seen before when it isn’t, but based on what I’ve read, the characters sound a bit too based on over-used stereotypes, and the plot sounds far too familiar.
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