Rent Clarification Question

[SahDu]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 1:23pm

Ok, this has always bothered me. During Goodbye Love, when Roger says "I'll call. I hate the fall." what is he referring to in the word "fall"? I wasnt sure if it meant like a fall from grace or the season of fall (seeing as how the preceding song is Halloween...so it is fall)...maybe something else? Just curious. Thanks :).


Updated On: 2/15/14 at 01:23 PM

[gavrochegirl]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 1:24pm

I've always thought it was the season of fall.

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 1:26pm

I've also always thought he was refering to the season, but for a long time I thought the lines was "I'll call / I hate the phone," which I kind of like better

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 1:26pm

I thought the same thing. The fall season.

[BWLVER34]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 1:26pm

Yea I think he meant the season.

[timote316]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 2:03pm

I always thought it was the fall from grace or something like that.

[forget regret <3]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 2:38pm

Haha yoda, I thought it was "I hate the phone" for almost a year.

[Patronus]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:30pm

For me, it's never been anything other than a "fall from grace" or more specifically "hitting bottom" within his relationships.

He feels like he has been betrayed by Mimi and she has left him alone. In a much different way, April also betrayed him and left him alone.

In addition, I think he feels like he has damaged his relationship with his best friend (Mark) in the process and has just lost a close friend in Angel whom everyone looked to as an inspiration. I think he feels like "my life couldn't be any worse."

It has never occurred to me that he was referring the the season.

I suppose it makes sense that he could be being dramatic and saying "I hate the fall. (autumn)" in the same kind of way we might say "I hate today" when things aren't going our way, but it's never been how I saw it.

It's always interesting to hear other people's interpretations of things like this because it makes you look at something in a new light that you thought you knew front and back.

Good thread! Updated On: 10/29/05 at 03:30 PM

[Mandi Moo]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:34pm

I always thought it was fall, as in a fall from grace type thing. Amd when ever I saw the show, the person who was playing Roger never really did anything special when he said it. But I was watching this...er...clip of Cary singing it, and he looked around and kind of motioned to the world around him, which got me thinking maybe it was fall like the season.

Who knows?

[bwayfan3]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:35pm

Isn't the fall of the year before when April committed suicide? That's why I always thought he said that. Bad things seem to always happen for Roger during that season.

[Patronus]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:36pm

In general, I think it's one of those things that is probably open to intepretation of the given actor playing the role.

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:38pm

I always thought the season, being that we know it's Halloween and it's Roger being his pessimistic, angsty self.

[YankeesFan175]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:44pm

yeah, i thought it was always the season as well, never thought of it as anything else.


bwayfan3, how do you know april committed suicide in the fall? i never thought there was anything specific to say when.

[Patronus]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:52pm

The workshop indicated that it was over 2 years since April had killed herself, but it doesn't specify the time of year.



Updated On: 10/29/05 at 03:52 PM

[1/2 Shiksa Goddess]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 3:57pm

From the workshop, I'd guess that it was the fall that April died- on Christmas eve, they said:

Roger:
I've got a car, so as far as April's bucket'll go. Santa Fe, Austin...

Mark:
We couldn't make Boston.

Angel:
April?

Mark:
Suicidal girl who OD'd. He says he loved her- what he loves is to bleed. Over two years since she left that car key, but he never drives it.

So if it's over two years as of Christmas eve... that could indicate the fall...

[YankeesFan175]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 4:00pm

aah ok. thanks!

[Patronus]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 4:03pm

Ah, thanks for the line, Goddess!

[ashley0139]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 4:37pm

Another vote for the season here. I had never thought of it any other way, but I guess I can see that as well.

[kitkatt456]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 6:44pm

Wow, I never thought of it as the season, I always thought of it as "a fall from grace" actually I never really knew what he meant, now it makes sense.

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 6:48pm

wait, so he meant it as in the season? wow i never thought of it like that before... thats kinda like another 'i like boys, boys like me' question haha.

[LeaGirl]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 8:56pm

I always thought it was the season.

That, combined with the rather awkward "Happy Spring" line, I thought were to help us see how time was passing in act 2, since we change from "everything in one night" in act one, to a whole year going down in Act 2.

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 9:01pm

It is the season.
It is obviously that it is with the use of seasons that Larson varies the mood and inner transition of chracters. There are the references to winter and spring...and of course both "Seasons of Love"

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 9:01pm

I thought it was "fall from grace" originally too, but I think the word purposely has a double meaning

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 9:06pm

Well, there are a few during the show, just beginning with the title of the show "Rent" as in lease, and Rent as in:

A past tense and a past participle of rend.

n.
An opening made by rending; a rip.
A breach of relations between persons or groups; a rift.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 9:08pm

That, combined with the rather awkward "Happy Spring" line, I thought were to help us see how time was passing in act 2, since we change from "everything in one night" in act one, to a whole year going down in Act 2.

That's why I thought that too.

n.
An opening made by rending; a rip.
A breach of relations between persons or groups; a rift.

Whoa! Never knew that! I'm enlightened.