How I Learned To Drive Response

The Greek Chorus used by Vogel seemed really effective to me. The focus of the play was on the relationship between Uncle Peck and Lil Bit, and if Vogel would have created separate actors for each one of the extraneous characters, there would have been a chance that the audience would have been slightly distracted. I know that, when I'm seeing a play, I try to notice every character on the stage. However, by use of the Greek Chorus (or modern, twisted version of it), we only have three voices and bodies to get used to, which gives the audience a chance to focus more on the interaction between Uncle Peck and Lil Bit. Where extraneous characters could have been added, by seeing a familiar face on screen, we can notice the little details between their interactions, such as the smiles and intense looks, which I often find myself looking for if I'm not needing to look at other characters to see how their reacting.

Vogel chooses not to show us the interaction with Bobby and Uncle Peck on stage, which could have shown insight into whether this was a common thing for Peck, or if it had just been with Lil Bit. We also don't see a character on stage with Peck, we only hear him speaking to Bobby as if he's right there. But what it does show us is how he would act when around someone else, despite that other person not being on stage. We also see the way Peck's emotions work, and how he doesn't want anyone else to know about the things he does with the younger family members. He says it's okay to cry when no one else is around, which he may be justifying for himself.