Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Me

Play #70 - Me by Maia Akiva

I really enjoyed this play - the version of reality that it presents is sort of comforting. The play takes place in an office that features a photo of Maia on the wall along with diagrams of all the people she knows and how they are connected. Behind the desk, Maia's Destiny is hard at work when, all of a sudden, Maia wanders into the office. Now, strictly speaking, people are not supposed to be able to wander into the office of their destiny, so MD is a little shocked. And it doesn't take long for Maia to become pretty shocked as well. MD tries to chase Maia out of the office by holding her at gunpoint, but when Maia gets the gun, the tables turn and MD has to confess who she is and what this office is. Maia ends up pretty excited about that and starts to demand answers to all of her questions about her life: will she be happy? When will she make money as a writer? When will she find love? She wants to know everything. But, of course, MD doesn't want to tell her. So Maia just sits down at the computer and prepares to click through all the folders on her life. MD tries to talk her out of it, promising her that knowing for sure what her future will hold will take all the joy out of life. She will no longer have anything to look forward to, she'll never be surprised by anything. But Maia argues she'll also never be let down. They go back and forth about this for a while, until Maia finally decides that she's better off not knowing. ND reassures her that her destiny isn't what she does or has or accomplishes... it simply is her. She puts down the gun and leaves... and MD cheerfully reports that the visit went as planned, and that Maia will love what's coming next.

I really dig this idea of an office dedicated to each of our lives - to seeing all the pieces of the puzzle as they fall in and out of place. And the argument that the uncertainty of life is partly where all the joy comes from is very interesting. Of course, a lot of the disappointment and negativity come from this uncertainty too, but that's the price, isn't it? The final moment, however, when Maia's Destiny makes it clear that this "chance encounter" was actually part of her destiny after all... my feelings are mixed about that. I sort of wish there had actually been something that was totally off script for Maia - I wish that this one weird happening had actually been out of the reach of the Destiny office. But I guess nothing really is, is it?

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