“Despicable, Malicious, and Forgivable Characters”

The play’s script opens with a picture perfect set of a 1950’s household, with one exception. A Nintendo set. This is the play’s central prop, and represents the broken family unit. As a tertiary plotline, the audience follows the game set and its main player, Jeffrey, on a quest to fix the machine. Next, Guyton introduces the central family parental units appropriately named Mom and Dad. These two present obstacles as Mom desperately tries to earn love and attention from her husband, while Dad desperately tries to fill his various dinner plates. As the parental figures attempt to create order in their own home, two new characters are introduced across town in Allison’s apartment.

Julie and Allison are sisters who have left Mom and Dad’s nest in search of Band-Aids for their own lives: one needs a job and the other a pregnancy test. Allison presents her symbolic Nintendo as her failure to get a grip on life because Julie is “in the way.” Julie meanwhile is creating a butterfly effect in each household as the readers see how her decisions affect everyone around her. This script culminates with her most crucial decision: SEX. In Allison’s absence (cue melodramatic music), Hector takes the scene as Julie’s clueless, stoner boyfriend. Within a conversation, Julie unveils to Hector that he is, in fact, the father of her unborn child. How else can he appropriately respond, but lighting up a fat joint?

With no support from her sister or boyfriend, Julie’s last resort is God, or something close to it. Margaret is a religion-loving, Jesus-praying sixteen year old who puts God “on hold” to help Julie through her problem. Another character blends into the background, but must not go unmentioned. Jeffrey is Julie’s Autistic brother, and has been reviewed previously as a representation of Jesus. He is a character that challenges the family to make their own decisions by uttering the word NINTENDO as creatively as Bill and Ted say “DUDE!” Who knew one mid-90’s video game could present so much compassion, frustration, and final advice when creatively placed in dialogue?

As mentioned before, the play introduces two characters as comic relief. The Running Crew’s conversations kindly, but consistently remind the audience that this is JUST a play, and the characters are JUST actors, and not representations of actual people. I begin to wonder whether Guyton created The Running Crew to get some laughs, take the heat off of himself, or to really make a point that actors are “…actors! They don’t have…feelings….or anything.” I have concluded, after much time spent dissecting the script, that The Running Crew are ultimately a set up for the final scene. This is the scene which literally brings the family unit into the audience, and forces the patrons to accept the dysfunctional clan as they are and will always be – exceptionally crazy!

Guyton has a great talent in finding humans’ most despicable traits and creating loveable characters who embody those behaviors in their daily routine. For example, in his play I’m Not Gay!, the character Gary actually murders his wife so she will not gab to their neighbors that Gary is, in fact, gay. The audience allows him this relief because we feel sympathy for his need to be what he considers normal. Similar characters appear in Where’s Julie? when Mom blurts out oblivious racist generalizations, and when Dad beats his son for being a “retard.” In this script the audience cuts Dad a break because, as viewers, we suppose that Jeffrey is actually an all-knowing Jesus figure, and Dad is far less mentally capable and doesn’t know any better. We forgive Mom because, what can we say except “bless her little heart."

Hector provides another example of a despicable character as he represents a 23 year old that not only sleeps with a 15 year old, but also sells, steals, and smokes drugs! I cut him a break because he eventually decides to keep his day job to support his budding family, and he appears to sincerely love Julie. Would this attitude sway a judge in court? No! But somehow, Guyton convinces his audience to care for these characters who are innately immoral. Each role in the play presents a conflicting evil choice and relationship of acceptance with the audience… except Jeffrey. He materializes moral support and a quiet ear for many characters. In fact, many scenes actually sound like a prayer in which Jeffrey just listens. This coincidence, if it is that, may further substantiate his embodiment of a Christ figure.

Another interesting concept Guyton represents in his plays, and particularly this one, is a strained relationship with the matriarch and her concept of order. In Guyton’s dramatic play Attic, Mother tries to maintain control with drugs, whereas, in this piece Mom attempts maintenance with advice, cereal, and a clean house. Does Mom embody all that a 1950’s society has put on her – cleanliness, caretaker, and non-judgmental confidant? Yes, but in the end, this picture of happiness falls apart as she runs away with an audience member to have an affair in the lobby!

Guyton often shares with the audience an inch of his vision, and allows us to run a mile with it. This poor family is a delicious smorgasbord of immoralities and power struggles, and Guyton allows us to taste the play’s themes and then empty the serving dishes, just like Dad’s character, with lobby discussions after the show. However, like the despicably loveable characters, at the end of the day, I am willing to let this criticism slide. After all, Guyton may just be presenting a mirror to nature. That large compact forces the audience to look at our own behaviors and make decisions best suited to ourselves. What a smart way to passively scold the public for their own behaviors!

I will say that I have both seen the play and read the script for Where’s Julie?, so I have strong opinions of what works on stage versus just reading the play. Both mediums are thought provoking, and laugh-out-loud parodies of what we see in the daily American household. Holding a script in hand allows readers to understand stage directions from the playwright’s perspective, and not from a director’s interpretation. With that in mind, I would highly suggest reading the play first if you enjoy lighthearted jokes at the expense of human idiosyncrasies, and then viewing Guyton’s shows to watch hilarity ensue. To learn more about the author or purchase his scripts, please view his web page at www.danguyton.com.