Dramatic 10-Minute Plays

I would have to say that my favorite of all these plays would be That Midnight Rodeo. It starts out so casually, it seems like an authentic conversation. At first, it seems like Cindy is really just obsessing over her career as a horse racer, and she keeps mentioning that she has to do something. By the last few pages, though, it becomes obvious what that "something" is: she needs to get an abortion, or else she will no longer be able to compete. The realization of what she is saying comes sort of suddenly, yet it also arrives very smoothly, thanks to Cindy's mentioning of particular things relating to going to a doctor. This play works so well because it doesn't immediately spoil the surprise of her pregnancy. If Mary Sue Price were to have the characters talk explicitly about an abortion from the get-go, the script would potentially be a lot less interesting. The characters managed to say what they need to without actually saying it, which is why the dialogue sounds so real.

I also liked The Roads That Lead Here. I really enjoyed the interactions between all of them. Marcus and Xander were good for their overeager, overzealous behaviors, especially in their fun conversation before Jason arrives ("You bastard!"). Jason worked well as a means of grounding the other two, and helping to temper the audience of the play. This is a play where I would've maybe liked to look into their world more: how the three brothers began doing their task; what their interactions with others are like; what sort of person the Eminent is. I could totally see it working as something more than a 10-minute play, but instead, we get this small glimpse, and it works.

The Man Who Couldn't Dance was alright (but loses some points right out of the gate for having a really boring title). I think this play was a good example how to pull off good verbal sparring--where characters stick barbs in one another, but hold back just enough to keep the other person from leaving the room. Within the span of this script, we get a pretty good sense of what the relationship was like between Eric and Gail compared to how it is now. It got a bit too dramatic at times, but still managed to have a pretty interesting plot.

A Bowl of Soup was the least interesting to me. The plot was simple in a way that did not work, mainly because Eric Lane let Eddie have 95% of the dialogue. I really wish I could have heard more from Rob; I know he's supposed to be mournful, but I didn't like that he just allowed Eddie to ramble on and on.

Fences

This play was great. Troy Maxson strikes me as an extremely rich character. Full of contradictions, his place as a tragic hero is well-deserved. I am stunned by how he manages to speak at length about his poor treatment as a child one moment and then go and berate those around him the next. I particularly liked how Wilson wrote the dialogue of Bono's accusations that Troy has been seeing another woman. Troy comes off so smoothly with his denials and sidesteps that you believe he isn't guilty of adultery. Though narratively I knew there was no way he wasn't having some kind of intimate relationship with Alberta, I hadn't anticipated that he'd go so far as to tell Rose that he was going to be a father. That part of the play was extremely well-written.

The metaphor of fences in the play was very potent. At one point, Troy wonders why exactly Rose wants a fence around the house. Bono replies that there are two reasons to put up fences: to keep people out, or to keep people in. Little does Troy realize, he's been putting up and knocking down many fences over the course of the play. He knocks his own fence down to go visit Alberta. He puts up another fence to keep Cory from excelling in football. He also fences Rose into the house. He keeps a fence up against Lyons and Gabriel, because they both make him feel guilty and frustrated--Lyons for reminding Troy of his past mistakes, and Gabriel for reminding Troy that he's is the only reason the Maxsons "have a pot to piss in" because of his pension. The main reason for all of these fences is that Troy, deep down, is actually quite a selfish character. He goes on and on about how he doesn't have to like people, it's his responsibility to take care of them. The problem is that without love, there just isn't any real motivation for Troy to keep taking good care of his family.

I liked the dialogue in Fences. It did not have that sort of forced dramatic diction that happens so often in bad plays. Here, the language is raw and the delivery is realistic. It really added well to the atmosphere of the play. I also know that the play was quite long to read--and I imagine the performance would be more or less the same length--but I think it was well-paced. There were strong monologues mixed into all the dialogue that occurs. I particularly liked Troy's speeches, as well as the one Rose delivers to Troy near the end of the play.