Middletown

Middletown. A world where everything is just as it seems, but isn't. People are average, but extraordinary. The lives in Middletown are crossed and strangely entwined. Everything seems so perfectly imperfect.

Sitting as an audience member watching this play, not once, but twice, I was resoundingly confused as to what was going on the first time I seen it. The main characters are neighbors and friends but then somehow no longer friends. My favorite character realizes he is beautiful after being told he is shamed and horrible his entire life. It was a beautiful play of life in town where everyone seems to know everything about everyone, but doesn't truly know anyone.

I will be honest, I was very much confused by this play. It reminded me of the town I lived in Nebraska. People seemed to know everything about everyone. However, friendships would dissipate and suddenly no one really knew anyone. It's reality in today's world. We act like we are friends and we truly aren't. It's a pessimistic view to take but it's the truth. Finding genuine people is very difficult to do. Finding people who will be there for you takes a lifetime.

The Intriguing Duality of "Middletown"

Out of the many ideas and themes throughout the production, one of the most prominent and central themes “Middletown” explores is duality. 

Even in the very beginning of the play, when the narrator greets the audience, duality is mentioned with every word as he addresses opposing groups of people who could possibly be seeing the show (For example: Ladies, gentlemen. Lovers, haters). Aesthetically, the show also encompasses this dual concept. A projector screen is occasionally used as part of the production, blending both the medium of film and theatre together. Likewise, the two houses used on the far left and right sides of the stage have a dual purpose: for most of the performance, they act as mere houses in the background inhabited by John Dodge and Mrs. Swanson. Then, towards the end, their role switches and they adopt the central role of the hospital rooms where both characters are staying. Even the name of the play, “Middletown”, conveys the play’s function as a “middle ground”: a neutral place.

Moving on from the design of the play, the most obvious form of the duality theme is with the production’s diverse cast of characters. You have the lovable, meek Mechanic and the imposing, bold Cop. Self-destructive John Dodge, who eventually brings about death for himself, and Mrs. Swanson, who brings about life for other people and eventually produces life herself in the form of the child she gives birth to. You even have the play and the audience, whose members later interact with the production itself.

Can it get more opposite or more meta than that?

"Middletown" Review

Huntington University’s theatre department has done a fantastic job putting on Eno’s Middletown. It is one of the most thought provoking and detail oriented shows I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing.

From the symbolism at the beginning with the dead flowers on one window sill to the fresh flowers in another window, this play is incredibly well thought out.

Middletown’s genre is hard to pinpoint. It’s humorous and sad all at once. The show even addresses this when one character says “Use humor to try and distance yourself from the pain.”

That quote makes me cringe because I do that very thing all too often. I hide my hurt by laughing.

Laughter is indeed good medicine, but I think we also need to take the time to acknowledge the everyday pain we feel. Basking in grief can actually be a healing process. If we constantly suppress our genuine feelings, we lose one of the most beautiful aspects of our humanity.

This play also deals with the concept of self-worth. The mechanic participates in a rain dance near the end of the show. The audience very obviously feels embarrassed on his behalf as he starts, but he continues and all of the sudden he transports us to a glorious land of self-acceptance.

In summary, Middletown displays the contrast and correlation between life and death, teaches us where humor belongs in relation to pain, and emphasizes the importance of self-love.

Middletown

Last week I went a saw HU's rendition of the play Middletown. The set was very minimalist but worked in favor with the writing. The Dialogue was phenomenally and many of the characters made you laugh and others made you cry. What I found truly fascinating was that it the story is one of balance. Where there is joy in life for one, another can be found depressed. Where there is love there also hate. Where there is life...you get the idea. The play takes place in small town USA where not much really happens, much like my hometown. People move in and people move out that never changed. What was interesting about these individuals were that they all had something deep down that was driving them. I believe that it was hope. Just as the woman who has just moved into town has hope that her baby will have a great life. So does the man who repairs her sink. He hopes that life has something more for him to hold onto than just doing odd jobs. Both are driven to find something to fulfill that need for more, the desire to live life to its fullest.  At the end of the play I was left with the question "Am I living life to the fullest?". Middletown has impacted me to make the most of each day and not waste any opportunity. 

Middletown

Before I begin, I just want to mention that this blog will contain SPOILERS for Middletown, so for everyone reading this please go and see it. Middletown was a wonderful show and the cast was spot on with how they portrayed their characters. I'm not really going to focus on each of the character aspects that were portrayed well, but rather what it added to the story. From the top of the show we are placed in this fictional town in the middle of nowhere and is even described as a place between places that have been forgotten. We then meet this crazy cast of characters who all are trying to find their own way in life. There was a particularly profound moment toward the end of the show where a member of the audience steps on to the stage between John, a character who had just passed away, and Mrs. Swanson who just had given birth. This was the scene that set the theme for the show for me. Each of the characters in the show all struggle with where they are in life and what it all really means, but maybe that is the whole point. All of us in some point in our life are lost on the long winding road of life. That audience member standing between life and death was physically showing us where we stand in the great voyage of life, in the middle. There are other great themes within the show such as trying to find your place and self realization, but I found that the most important moral is realizing that we all are just in the middle between life and death. In that, I hope we can all find our humanity.

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.

Middletown

First off, I will say that everyone did a tremendous job with Middletown. The performance was fantastic. But in my opinion, the play was too happy for a drama. It seemed more of a comedy than a tragedy.
The aspects of the story make you realize how special you are to other people's lives. John is a character who is always hopeful to make a difference in other people's lives. He has a crush on the newcomer, Mrs. Swanson, but he knows he will never win her heart because she's married and expecting a child.
The Mechanic is another under appreciated character who seems to notice everything that goes on in the street. No one really appreciates him, or everyone thinks he is just dull in the head and goes along with him. But if you really sat down and talked with him, you begin to see his logic of life.
The other minor characters that were placed at various points in the story, spill their thoughts about how lucky they were for where they grew up. The astronaut, for instance, gives a monologue explaining where he is from and what life had in Middletown. Even though he is a famous intergalactic astronaut, he still thinks on his old hometown and the people who help shape his life.

Middletown

The Huntington Theater Department's production of the Will Eno play Middletown was absolutely stunning. I had no expectations going into it, as I had never even heard of this show before, and was definitely in for a wild ride. The show centers on three main people: Craig, Mary, and John. Craig is a nervous mechanic who turns to alcohol and pills to calm his nerves. Mary is a housewife, struggling with relocation to a new home and an absent husband. John in an anxious, lonely man who is desperately grasping for some sort of meaning. These people all try to get a handle on what it means to be alone and scared in an abusive population no one holds back and everyone speaks their mind, to the point of being terrorized. 

Watching this play was incredibly difficult. Not only were there parts of the play that were strange and kind of awkward to watch, but there were also parts that tackle big questions: What's the point? What does all of this mean? Does my existence have any kind of meaning? These questions are very significant to all of us, especially to those who desire to make art. Artists and creators often doubt themselves, and wonder if their art has any kind of meaning, or even the right kind of meaning. If it has meaning to you, then you should do it. But if it has meaning to someone else, then you have to do it. 

Middle Town

Middle Town is about Mary a woman who moved into a new town. This town is full of interesting people the town mechanic who is also how helps at the hospital who's an interesting fellow also the man who does everything and nothing. You see the characters interact with each other in crazy ways but the story tells that no matter how normal the town is there are always the crazy people but that's not a bad thing. In this crazy town everyone cares for each other it shows with the last half. Mary got pregnant and goes to the hospital because she's about to have her son and her friend John the man who does everything but also nothing is also there cause he used a rusty piece of metal to cut himself not that he wanted to die but to feel the rush of  a near death experience. Sadly, John dies and Mary has her kid and names him John and that's where it ends with a story of a life ending and a life starting.

Middletown

First, I have to say thanks to the nice lady who gave me sixty-five cents for my ticket so I could get in to see the play. If you haven't gone yet, student tickets are $5.65, not just $5. So when I told someone that I was going to see Middletown, their response was: "You may or may not feel like you just wasted two hours of your life." The first thing I noticed was that the dialogue, most of it anyway, is not the typical conversation that you hear in plays, or anywhere else for that matter. They sit around and casually discuss philosophy: life, death, being normal, the vastness time and space, loneliness and it all revolves around the question of what does it all mean? And I don't think that this play was meant to provide an answer, just to raise the question. In a world where so many people live and die, how do our lives matter at all? In a world of "is, was and will be," how do we make anything stick? One of the characters says: "I think we're born with questions and the world is the answer." Maybe there are no complete answers, just questions. And how we ask and answer the question is the answer. 

Middletown

Middletown is a play about a small town where people have their place in the community but they’re still trying to find themselves. John Dodge, played by Sam Jones, was one of the main characters. He performed lots of odds and ends around town, including fixing drains, that’s how he met Mary. Mary was played by Kaeley Osterman. Mary had just moved to Middletown with her husband, Bob. Mary was also pregnant throughout this play. Bob often traveled for business. I was very disappointed that Bob never ever showed up, not even once. But, anyway, John liked Mary, a lot. She had to tell him on several occasions that she was married. Well, John was also a depressed man that hadn’t really accomplished anything with his life and he wanted more. John had attempted suicide and was in the hospital at the same time as Mary before her delivery. John had cut his wrist with a dirty knife. Spoilers, John dies, probably from some severe infection that they never figured out what it was. Mary had her baby, her husband and brother both couldn’t make it because of flight issues. So she was alone during delivery and she never found out that her friend John died, whom she named her son after. I thought that the play was very interesting and well portrayed, I was a little upset with some of the story line, like John and Mary never getting together and Bob never showing up. Over all, it was a great show and I would 10 out of 10 recommend that you go see it!

Middletown: Life in a small town

Middletown, originally produced by American playwright Will Eno in 2011, is a play about a small town going through the ups and downs of life together as a community.  I attended the play on its invited dress rehearsal night, Thursday September 22nd at 7:30 in the evening.  As I sat down in the audience ready for the play to begin, I did not know any background about the original play or what it was even about.  I began to analyze and watch how each individual character portrayed their part.  I thought that the mechanic part, played by Huntington University's own Riley Newsome, did a wonderful job as he made his part come alive and got the whole crowd laughing.  The play to me seemed to be about how a small community, like Middletown, can come together as one through all the pain, humor, and joys of life.  Every character had their own personality yet they all seemed to get along, except for the cop and the mechanic.  The major parts played by Sam Jones and Kaeley Osterman, as Mrs. Swanson and John Dodge, were played exceptionally well as they brought their own characters to life.  The ending of the play is what really took me for a turn as John Dodge died and new life was born.  This play was an exceptional portrayal of how life can really catch you in the "middle" and make you think what it really means to live or die.  I would highly recommend it to those who have not yet seen it.