With The Glass of Water and Noises Off!, it's very easy to tell that they are Well-Made Plays. Buried Child, however, throws readers for a loop. There's three acts--check--, there are things the audience sees that other characters don't know about--check--, but there isn't a distinct scene that encompasses the play and shows how it all relates together. Instead, as the entire play comes together, it becomes more and more confusing until the end when Tilden comes in holding the child, and it seems like everything has just blown up in pure confusion.
But everything that happens, though disturbing, could seem normal in some Norman Rockwell-meets-Rocky Horry world. The thing that catches our attention and shows us that the plot of this play is not so normal is Vince's girlfriend, Shelly. She acts as the audience on stage. When Vince and Shelly first arrive at the house, she says Vince should just leave because the man that is supposed to be his grandfather doesn't even recognize him. Later, when Vince comes back into the house drunk to oblivion as she's holding his uncle's wooden leg, she's basically done with life and just leaves.
Shelly seems to be the thing that stands out as different from this play. She gives us the perspective that we, as the audience, generally have. Such as "Why the hell is Tilden asking me/her to peel these carrots that apparently came out of a garden that doesn't exist?" And instead of what we would originally believe to be straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, that vision, along with Shelly's is shattered as it becomes an image of infidelity, murder, and secrecy that is just plain creepy.
Is what we see what we get? I'm not quite sure. Is there a garden in the backyard or is it an empty pasture or a freaking torture chamber that we don't know about? It's all really frustrating, but it seems as though this play heavily relies on the ambiguity of it everything. The pretend garden, whether Ansel was a murdered basketball player or not, whether the farm was "flowing with milk and honey" as Dodge says. It's all left unsaid.
So I would say, no, this isn't a Well-Made Play. Everything is not as it seems because, well, we don't see a lot of it. And Norman Rockwell paintings will now haunt my dreams.
I have to agree I don't feel it is a well made play. I felt very confused upon reading it because everyone is somewhat under an illusion of what things are in their mind versus reality. I felt that your analysis on it somewhat cleared up what I couldn't quite understand. Another reason I feel that seeing this would be very different from merely text reading it. I also agree that Shelly is basically mirroring the audience in reactions to what is occurring. I agree that ambiguity allows us to come to our own imagination about what is going on aside from the irony that we aren't really sure what is going on in the character's own minds. Everything is just disorganized in the sense of going crazy...
ReplyDeleteI have to say I am kind of impressed with your reading of Shelley. I too grappled with the idea that this COULD be reality for a Norman-Rockwell type family, and Shelley even mentions that exact thing when she first enters. I knew from the start that Shelley served as a stand-in for the audience, but I never exactly looked at her as the thing that broke the illusion. I am super into this idea that merely by saying "Um, that's not normal," it actually ceases to be normal, and becomes non-illusionistic. Great find, and a very impressive reading.
ReplyDeleteWell...I feel so intellectually inadequate after reading your post, that I must rely on my large (yet shallow) vocabulary. I must say I agree with you that this isn't a well made play. I particularly liked your view point of the norman-rockwell family. Clearly Shelly is emphasizing this idea for the audiences sake. That framework does provide a good idea of what life is there. It makes you question the reality of the play as to the reality of our world. Your insight in this play proves to be very helpful in actually understanding this.
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