What I liked
Acting was solid.
Writing was crafted really nicely.
Climax was expected but still had some nice tension.
A definite fringe highlight and a great workshop for what needs a full production behind it!
Look forward to this writer doing more drafts or writing new material!
What I didn't like
Cut the cocaine bit. Dilutes the characters build and qualifies the tension in a way that keeps a lid on the situation.
spoilers
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Why is he dead at the end? I don’t feel it adds to the story and forces the audience to fill in. Since this show should continue, maybe try keeping him alive, might make his battle in the trial by public opinion court more resonant.
My overall impression
At first glance this show prepares you for an easy liberal win at the expense of redneck archetypes well crafted by the writer director team. However it evolves into a much more thorough analysis of why and how right wing extremeists operate. Luckily, the writer is Mississippi based so his dialogue was fresh, inviting, and hauntingly poetic. The audience is pulled into this awkward coming of rage for a white lonely millennial on the brink of ‘giving in’ to the point where the audience starts to sympathize with both characters. This is where the piece as a whole elevates from just clever dialogue. I believe underneath the hate symbols, racism, guns, there is a legitamite movement on the right that isn’t being heard. No, being racist, anti-gay, anti-equality is by no means the best way to live in a free country, but there is also no benefit from cutting out Americans from a dialogue based solely off of their political beliefs. As Lincoln put it, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’.
The twitter misquoting, the Ben Shapiro references, Drinking, validation, these are all core elements expressed in this piece as being subtle hints to what is resonating with the right. The want to be heard. The right want that just as much as the left want and this show expresses that at the core, the values might not be that different.
Even with the final monologue the message was clear, the government might not be all that for the people, and as a people we should start helping each other more than dividing.
