I went with MacKenzie's drama class on a field trip to the local Community Theatre to see a production entitled "The Quarry". We all love live theatre, so I was really looking forward to it. The stage set was great. It was a great representation of the inside of a house; the living room, dining room table, stairs, landing, and 3 doors into 2 bedrooms and the bathroom. It looked great. I thought about Danae when I saw it, because her desire is to get her Interior Design degree and one of the things she could do with it is stage design.
The play was very well written and superbly acted. They had only been rehearsing since January 16th and this week are the performances which was really impressive!
The story started off with a bizarre opening line, "Ecstasy is murder". I wondered what we were in for considering the age of the students watching. (12-16 yrs) Anyway, on the play went. The story was about an author who writes a book and then believes it has happened and that he has truly murdered his girlfriend and must live out the final chapter in which he commits suicide because of his remorse. A female police office comes to investigate if his story is real as she has been looking for his girlfriend, who was a runaway, because she had been having a relationship with the missing girl before she ran away! Oh brother, so now we have murder, suicide, quite a bit of swearing and now a homosexual relationship! The play ended with the presumed dead girlfriend walking in the door to find her boyfriend dead. She then sits down to the piano and quotes the line about 'ecstasy is murder' again. A bit disturbing!
The play was definitely for adults even though 85% of the kids present had probably seen and heard a lot worse. I don't think it was appropriate to take kids to. I know there was a young girl there who was homeschooled up until this year. I figured she was definitely getting more than she bargained for! Poor kid.
Kevin asked if the kids had been debriefed and able to discuss the themes in the play. No, they didn't. MacKenzie went to her friend's for night, so we'll chat with her tomorrow about it. I hate when a movie or a play ends with suicide. I think it is such a cop-out for a story and I hate to think of what ideas it gives already troubled kids.
One good thing that came from the play, was that all the kids entered a draw and MacKenzie won! She got 2 tickets to a folk singer on Wednesday night. hmmmm....could be interesting!
(I hope this blog made sense! It was a hard play to summarize and analyze as the acting was so good and the story well written, but the content seemed inappropriate for a school field trip.)
The play was very well written and superbly acted. They had only been rehearsing since January 16th and this week are the performances which was really impressive!
The story started off with a bizarre opening line, "Ecstasy is murder". I wondered what we were in for considering the age of the students watching. (12-16 yrs) Anyway, on the play went. The story was about an author who writes a book and then believes it has happened and that he has truly murdered his girlfriend and must live out the final chapter in which he commits suicide because of his remorse. A female police office comes to investigate if his story is real as she has been looking for his girlfriend, who was a runaway, because she had been having a relationship with the missing girl before she ran away! Oh brother, so now we have murder, suicide, quite a bit of swearing and now a homosexual relationship! The play ended with the presumed dead girlfriend walking in the door to find her boyfriend dead. She then sits down to the piano and quotes the line about 'ecstasy is murder' again. A bit disturbing!
The play was definitely for adults even though 85% of the kids present had probably seen and heard a lot worse. I don't think it was appropriate to take kids to. I know there was a young girl there who was homeschooled up until this year. I figured she was definitely getting more than she bargained for! Poor kid.
Kevin asked if the kids had been debriefed and able to discuss the themes in the play. No, they didn't. MacKenzie went to her friend's for night, so we'll chat with her tomorrow about it. I hate when a movie or a play ends with suicide. I think it is such a cop-out for a story and I hate to think of what ideas it gives already troubled kids.
One good thing that came from the play, was that all the kids entered a draw and MacKenzie won! She got 2 tickets to a folk singer on Wednesday night. hmmmm....could be interesting!
(I hope this blog made sense! It was a hard play to summarize and analyze as the acting was so good and the story well written, but the content seemed inappropriate for a school field trip.)
Comments
Good your family is discussing these things with your kids!