David Greenspan’s Son of an Engineer is an absurd and stylized cultural commentary. As the title suggests, the play serves as a bleak, suburban portrait of America post WWII. Greenspan fuses a world of missiles and homemakers (reminiscent of cold war era) with one of graphic sex and rampant divorce (indicative of the play’s publication in 1994). Son of an Engineer is set in the suburbs and on Mars, and features a prominent non-human character. Absurdist, middle-class stories with experimental structures are popular both in current fiction and playwriting, but I’m used to seeing a bit more humor than Greenspan chooses to include in this text. The characters, Diane especially, seem more solemn…and more important…for this lack of comedic interest. Similarly, what might be described as “the graphic molestation scene” on Mars carries significance because it is underemphasized through dialogue and Phoebe’s disinterested presence. Yet, I wouldn’t describe the handling of this scene as comic de-emphasis; it’s just creepy. Ultimately, I found a lot of Greenspan’s choices pretty ambiguous, although his cultural critique remained clear throughout.
-How many people turned back and reread the part about Tom being a bear? It is stated explicitly, but he never does anything that bear-like. -How does the monologue about alienation from schoolmates tie in with Jenny and the Japanese boyfriend? -Is the plot’s lack of logic distracting? Did anyone mind that the mom was just chilling in the basement? -Why didn’t Tom go with Diane? -I think beginning with the parents moving and not telling the son is brilliant. Did anyone else like this scene? Why?
A Blog for reading responses and general discussion pertaining to the work generated in our Playwriting II class at Brown University in the Fall of 2007.
Playwriting II - LITR 0210 C
The official and utterly awesome blog for Playwriting II at Brown University in the Autumn of the year 2007.
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2 comments:
David Greenspan’s Son of an Engineer is an absurd and stylized cultural commentary. As the title suggests, the play serves as a bleak, suburban portrait of America post WWII. Greenspan fuses a world of missiles and homemakers (reminiscent of cold war era) with one of graphic sex and rampant divorce (indicative of the play’s publication in 1994). Son of an Engineer is set in the suburbs and on Mars, and features a prominent non-human character. Absurdist, middle-class stories with experimental structures are popular both in current fiction and playwriting, but I’m used to seeing a bit more humor than Greenspan chooses to include in this text. The characters, Diane especially, seem more solemn…and more important…for this lack of comedic interest. Similarly, what might be described as “the graphic molestation scene” on Mars carries significance because it is underemphasized through dialogue and Phoebe’s disinterested presence. Yet, I wouldn’t describe the handling of this scene as comic de-emphasis; it’s just creepy. Ultimately, I found a lot of Greenspan’s choices pretty ambiguous, although his cultural critique remained clear throughout.
-How many people turned back and reread the part about Tom being a bear? It is stated explicitly, but he never does anything that bear-like.
-How does the monologue about alienation from schoolmates tie in with Jenny and the Japanese boyfriend?
-Is the plot’s lack of logic distracting? Did anyone mind that the mom was just chilling in the basement?
-Why didn’t Tom go with Diane?
-I think beginning with the parents moving and not telling the son is brilliant. Did anyone else like this scene? Why?
Ignore the stuff I said about it not being funny. I must have been in a bad mood. :)
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