Middletown

My first play at Huntington was much better than I anticipated. I am not huge on theater, especially to one that I have never heard of. The actors were phenomenal as was the story line. Middletown is about Mary, a wife of an absent husband who wants to start a family, John, a frantic and depressed man trying to find happiness, and Craig, the local alcoholic who really wants to make something of himself. The play is very philosophical. It is constantly questioning what you to believe and what to think. It also breaks the fourth wall multiple times by having characters speak to the audience or when the cop comes to the audience. There is a "crowd" within the crowd. Although they are actors, it is meant to force you to wonder how others are understanding this play. Every character has there unique kinks. The cop is, I believe, bipolar. He will lash out and immediately regret it, but he just was doing these bad things to see the result. John questions everything that he says and hears. Not only does he make Mary start to look at situations differently, he begins to question too much causing him to worry. He falls in love with Mary, and as time goes by, he slowly gets more and more depressed until he begins to question what it is like to cause a crisis. Mary is conflicted between her absent husband and a man that would be there for her at any time. You are meant to hate the husband, but you never really find out why he is never there. Craig wants nothing more than to find love and make people proud. His Indian rain dance brings himself to feel beautiful again. It reminds him of something that he once was and he wants to move forward, but feel important enough again. All in all, the play was intriguing and Craig is easily my favorite character in the whole world.