Dying City--What's the Message?

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 6:27pm

That both straight men and gay men hate and abuse women?

And does the gay surviving brother

[SPOILERS]

seem to be revealing to the widow that his "straight" twin brother not only abused him, but sexually abused him while growing up?

The approach toward sex the "straight" brother takes toward his wife in a flashback scene tends to indicate this...

What's your take?

© 2007 nomdeplume by pseudonym All rights reserved. Updated On: 4/7/07 at 06:27 PM

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 6:43pm

Interesting thought. There was clearly some sort of twin telepathy between the two guys. I could see the straight one

**SPOILER**

having sexually abused the gay one as a kid, given the scene that you mentioned and the way they were so open sexually when they spoke with one another.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 6:55pm

[SPOILERS]

And carry the thought further, is the "straight" brother actually gay, but trying to live in denial of it, and is that why he acts so bitter and hateful to his wife and can't sleep with her and would rather have his brother sleep over, and tells her he doesn't love her?

And since he lives in denial, can it be that he shoots himself and suicides out of self-hatred?

And does it raise the question as to whether some men who treat women so badly and viciously, who cannot love women, may actually do so because they are gay and cannot live peacefully in a hetero relationship because of that duality, outside claiming straight, inside being gay?

And what of the gay male predators toward other men? Are they just rapists? And when it's inter-family rape, how warped do the relationships get after that?

© 2007 nomdeplume by pseudonym All rights reserved. Updated On: 4/7/07 at 06:55 PM

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 9:31pm

Wow, that's a great analysis. Lots of food for thought. You're making me rethink this play now. I'd be interested in checking out one of the performances again, but with the talkback with Shinn afterward. Are they still offering those or was it just a one time thing?

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 11:28pm

I don't know what Shinn's schedule is. It takes a little pondering to figure the play out.

[SPOILERS]

Continuing on, it seems obvious now that the wife was subconsciously aware of a threat to her in the relationship between the brothers since she wants the gay brother out of her house and makes the husband wake him up and send him away when the gay brother tries to crash at their apartment.

And why the "straight" husband was overly interested in the intimate relationship between his gay brother and the brother's boyfriend.

And now it makes sense why the wife has been in hiding from the gay brother for months and why the gay brother wants to emotionally harm and harrass her. He blames her for separating the two of them and for his "straight" brother's suicide. Though he pretends he likes her, he really hates her, she was his competition.

What do you think?

© 2007 nomdeplume by pseudonym All rights reserved. Updated On: 4/7/07 at 11:28 PM

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 12:14am

When I saw this play I didn't like it. It was the oppressiveness of it and the rotten treatment toward the woman in the play. But since I have had a chance to reflect on it and figure out why the behavior was going on, I think it is a very good play and a psychological interlocking puzzle.

[SPOILER]

And now moving from the interior family drama to the external reflection of what's happening within the play in relationship to its world, the "straight" brother is off in Iraq and the email is talking about the abuse of prisoners at Abu Graib prison there.

I'm thinking that what Shinn is pointing out is that we can't be surprised about the abuse of prisoners at Abu Graib, which if you will recall also including making Arab men pose nude together in homosexual type positionings (and homosexuality means death in Muslim sharia law so it was intended as heavy duty humiliation), when we abuse people in our own families, humiliate, degrade, even rape them. That the abuse of humans by other humans is all around us.

And I think his play is also about how you stop abuse. And perhaps he is saying first to recognize and figure out what is happening and confront it and demand that it stop and remove and protect yourself from the situation. Which is why the widow kicks the brother out and packs up all her dead husband's sh*t to get rid of it and the memories of him.

More ideas?

© 2007 nomdeplume by pseudonym All rights reserved. Updated On: 4/7/07 at 12:14 AM

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 9/27/08 at 4:12am

i'm bringing up an old thread! woo hoo!

anyways... i just saw this play tonight here in San Diego... never knew a thing about this play and i very much enjoyed it... reading this post though made me really think more about the story and the character study of the brothers... this play is available to purchase, right? i might just have to do that... GREAT PLAY!