Stunning
13 Apr
I ushered for the Sunday evening performance of Stunning by David Adjmi at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre. The play was about a Syrian-Jewish family, how their customs conflict with those of general American society and what happens when an outsider comes in and challenges those customs.
The play starts with two teenage girls talking about their husbands and desires to have kids. They talk about all the stunning material things their husbands provide for them. One of the girls talks about being an old maid at 19.
Lily, 16, is married to a middle aged man and lives in a stunning home with all white decore. Her husband wants to start having kids right way while she does not seem so sure.
The maid, Blanche (or Anna Maria as Lily calls her) comes in and changes their entire life around. Having studied fine culture and philosophy, she teaches Lily many feminist and worldly concepts that eventually start to influence her. Her husband and sister are displeased with it. Blanche and Lily eventually have an affair and Lily gives Blanche a great deal of money to pay back her “loans”.
Lily confides in her sister about the relationship with Blanche and that she wanted to run away with her. Her sister almost disowns her at this point calling her ungrateful for all that she had done for her and her husband. While the sister does not care for the husband (he stole money from her husband’s business, he physically and verbally abused her sister and probably had affairs) but she tells her sister that she should stay with her husband and be “unhappy”.
When confronted with the affair and the money that Lily gave her, Blanche’s personality completely changes. Apparently Blanche wasn’t who she said she was – she had spent time in jail and apparently has psychological issues.
The play was really good as far as keeping my attention. (I was going to cut out during intermission to prepare for a work trip but felt compelled to stay.) There were some funny scenes and some troubling scenes. The play fell flat in the end. The final scene was full of tension (Blanche ends up killing herself) and the audience was really into it but in the end you are left wondering what the point of the play was. Maybe it’s just me but I expected a moral or theme to the story. The only moral that I could discern from the story is “Don’t trust outsiders. They will corrupt you and steal from you.” I really don’t think that was the point, however, it seemed that the story was unresolved. Maybe that was the point.
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