Bug

Like The Last of our Boys, the set for Bug was visible to the audience on entering the theater, but this time because the seating was all onstage, surrounding the set. I very much liked this choice of staging—it created an intimate atmosphere in which to experience the play.

The realism in this production was the most disturbing, but also the most effective, part for me. In The Last of our Boys I can appreciate that, as a staged reading, it wasn’t going to be perfect and that it did work to have the actors sit to the side while offstage. However, Bug did exactly what I like in a play and made everything seem real. Bug was incredibly daring, another aspect of it that earned my respect. The predictable, unemotional, slow moving, no action plays can work, but a piece as terrifyingly real as this one is something special. When I watch a play that takes me on an emotional rollercoaster, I know that I have just experienced something of substance and talent. Bug not only affected my emotions, but actually made me feel physically ill, which is a very rare occasion. Theater has such an advantage over films in that we are in the same room with the people putting on this entertainment for us; smelling the cigarettes, watching the actors ‘snort’ cocaine and ‘smoke’ crack, the wine bottles, and, most of all, the insect bites and blood—none of these have the same effect when seen on a screen. I think it was incredibly brave for the playwright to write a play that includes such real-life, but not so socially acceptable, features; it challenges directors, actors, and producers, makes them think about how far they are willing to go, makes them meet the writer half way. I like that kind of challenge.

This is a heavy and very, very intense story. I think it was daring to write this content and storyline; it is important to write what is true, important to show that life is not simple, easy, or without tension, conflict, and pain. I imagine, though, that this sort of work is hard to write. But if you can write it, it will look really good onstage.