Monday, April 6th, 2009
Saturday I went to a play called Wallflower by Deborah Stein. I really liked it. Ultimately, I percieved it to be about a girl, Milena, and her social media-based life. Throughout the play, Milena associates herself with a boy, Damon. I saw a lot of her in me because basically, the boy was BAD NEWS. Not to mention he blew them all up with a bomb. Tragic ending, really.
Okay, now that you know the ending, I might as well tell the beginning too. Milena and her sister are living together with this boy, Damon, who I’m supposing in Milena’s love interest. The play started out very dramatically, with what my brother and I deemed, “Super blog ninjas.” They were, indeed, ninjas and probably super ninjas, but I’m not exactly sure about “blogging ninjas.” Anyway, they jump around the stage, weaving through the audience (I was lucky to have a front row wing seat), and they put up a white screen on the stage, proceeding to play a YouTube video. Whether it was real or not and actually available on YouTube, I have no idea.
The video is set in the near future and our star of the night, Milena, is the poster of this videoblog. The economy is bad in this futuristic video and apparently mangos cost $11. Ouch. The big dramatic point of the video is that government is crap and Milena rolls her up a tasty cigarette, using a dollar bill as a rolling paper. In the next scene, Damon enters and tells Milena that she now has an “army.”
The play cast consists of only three members besides the ninjas. Damon is the “bad boy” of the play, although does a good job on the hospitality part even if it were for selfish reasons. A brief synopsis: Damon tells Milena that she has an army of revolutionsists. Eventually, bad things start happening – curfue, lights out, and revolutionary Milena’s Army activists die from bombs. People start smoking tobacco rolled in green dollar bills and then start blowing up banks with bombs. Eventually, it comes out that Milena is merely a vessle for Damon’s thoguhts and ideas, for it is him that fed her cynical outlook on the government. Damon sees “potential” in activists and becomes the ringleader for them. Milena confronts him and he blows them all up. Accidently, of course.
All in all, it was a very edgy play and I liked it. There were lots of fight scenes of Milena and both her sister, Julianna, and Damon. I related to that because it really reminded me of the way I used to be and how I don’t want to be anymore, including the entire “being a vessel” bit. It was intense, and very enjoyable if you’re into new free art.
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Tags: Deborah Stein, Houston, Stages Repertory Theatre, Texas, wallflower, Wallflower play, Wallflower Review
April 12th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Hey! Somehow I just saw this. It was a very brave play wasn’t it? I enjoyed it, and how far it tried to reach. The messages about how people can have technology amplify their reach (like a blog post causing a riot) and that some people are very different in person and on-line – they really talked about some of the forces in the world as we figure out how to enter and survive and thrive in a information age.