Friday, February 13, 2015

F***ing Art

Play #19 (Make-up #3) - F***ing Art by Bekah Brunstetter

I don't know why I'm so gun shy about typing out the actual word here on the venerable interwebs. I certainly have no problem saying the word, but speech is so ephemeral. There's no record of it.

Anyway... no need to wax so philosophical about a short, simple, sweet play with a slightly scandalous title. FA is the story of Art, an 18-year-old boy dying of cancer, and Gal, the 18-year-old girl who has come to be "his first and his last." They knew each other when they were much younger, but never well. Still, apparently this pretty, popular girl has decided to offer herself to the dying son of two youth ministers. There is understandable awkwardness as they size each other up. Gal learns that she is not the only girl to have written Art about their possible missed connections. It's such a sad demonstration of the way people can try to make someone else's tragedy all about themselves. But as they talk, Gal is able to open up to Art little by little, expressing her fears and hopes with him in a way that, perhaps, she never could with someone who was likely to be alive a year from now. There is a sweet, sad honesty to this play that I really responded to. A lot of Brunstetters plays can be a little more harsh or even absurd in tone (a trait that I happen to love, by the way), so the straightforward nature of this one was a bit of a surprise, but it really is pretty lovely. They don't end up having sex, but what they do share is probably even more intimate. Another one I'll hang onto for acting classes.

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