Wednesday, February 27, 2019
How successfully does Alan Ayckbourn slice into the soul of surburbia in Absurd Person Singular?
I feel Ayckbourn does it extremely well, as he engrosss three very different couples with very different lives and comp ars and contrasts them to bump the everyday people and situations we come across in our own lives.The characters in this play become to a greater extent familiar as it develops and people similar Marion who has a 2 faced personality becomes recognisable with people in your life. She begins complimenting Jane and Sidney on their kitchen by saying sweet things such as what a simply dishy kitchen still when Jane and Sidney cannot see her she turns to her husband Ronald and claims the house is unsavoury and demands her husband to take her home in 5 minutes withal Jane and Sidney fell everything is going wonderfully, as they gift only invited these particular guests, to encourage them in the future. Sidney says to Ronald I hope youve been giving a little identification number of thought to our chat if you had a moment Ronald is a bank theater director and Sidney wants him to help him out a bit with loans.Then there is Geoff, who is wed to Eva. Not that his marriage should mean anything as he constantly cheats on Eva and doesnt cargon if she does or doesnt cognize. Also he speaks openly about his disgusting obsession. He describes one of his conquests as an absolute little cracker. His disloyalty unveils his shoal self but also reveals the reason for Evas pain which has led to depression.As Ayckbourn slices through each character, we can see they are all make-believe be something and they all appear to concerned with themselves, except Eva she doesnt act otherwise to her self or hide her problems, which is clear when she says to Sidney on the subject of her pills they forbid me from turning into a raving lunatic. Ayckbourn goes deeper to see her reasons for depression or else of trying to reveal a fake intention, which is what the others posses.* * * *In Act 2 the characters are slowly developing. This time the Christmas party is b eing held at Geoff and Evas and it appears they arent in the best of spirits as Geoff has just told Eva hes leaving her for another woman, this is seen when he says Sally and I will probably arrest somewhere else unitedly these words are harsh and blunt and have turned Eva mute.When the guests in the end arrive, Eva has decided to commit suicide, she begins to gas herself by placing her head in the oven, when Jane walks in and believes shes refineding the oven and volunteers to do it herself and says dont you worry about the ovenI must clean that oven if it kills me Eva, upset that her plan has failed then attempts to overdose herself but accidentally drops the pills go across the plug hole. Whilst trying to capture them, Sidney enters and thinks shes trying to unblock it and says youll never get a sink unblocked that way then gets his tools kit and begins to fix it. This creates a scorch humour as Evas situation is becoming more desperate as people keep interfering even thoug h they believe they are helping but its also quite sad because it shows how little they know about each other as they cant even see Eva is paroxysm from serious depression.You can also see how involved they are with themselves and are completely oblivious to the fact that Eva is desperate to kill herself. There is a dramatic irony as Ronald sets about a routine resort of fixing a light bulb but Evas condition is anything but routine.We become more and more sympathetic with Eva as she feels without Geoff she cannot live or his dismissal has led her to suicide but with Geoff we despise as he plays with Eva trying to twist things on to her by saying such things as if your blaming yourself dont which seems he thinks she should be and he also claims other men dont have this trouble when talking about his cheating as if it were some distemper and deserves sympathy for it. As Eva continues to ignore him his impatience grows until he speaks of previous craze such as Im going to lose my temper. And we know what happens then dont we. Ill take a swing for you his patronising and angry tone is almost creepy and furthers are hate for him.Throughout it all, Evas many suicide attempts, Ronalds electrocution when ever-changing the light bulb and Sidney drying himself from being soaked in dirty body of water while fixing the pipes. Is slightly over the top but that adds more comedy but the symapathy for Eva is still there as she is still torment and suspension is created of what will become of the Brewster-wrights marriage as tension is created when Marion says Youd never think it but he was a really vital issue man, Eva youd never think it to look at him maybe claiming she is no interminable attracted to him.
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