SHINING CITY - (Spoilers Inside)- Page 2

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/29/06 at 7:01pm

Okay, I think I got some more of the puzzle. Thanks, Calvin, for a great start.

I have a favor to ask of people who have yet to see the show to please listen up for an important detail that I didn't quite catch. How exactly did John's wife die? In an auto accident with another car? Getting in a crash in her car? Or hit by a car? I'm wondering whether it was accident or possible suicide. We have a very troubled spirit here in the dead wife. John said he feels his acts led to her death. People dying in both accidents and suicides have been known to haunt, but suicides have long been thought to remain earthbound, and to Catholics it is a great sin preventing entry into heaven. Remember we have Irish and a priest here, even if an ex-priest, and the Catholic faith must be reckoned with.

The woman at the end is clearly the ghost of John's wife. she is wearing the 2000 pound/euro/dollar(?) red designer coat and has the long dark hair that looks wet, she is behind a door and looks just as the ghost was described. Yes, there was the ice cream truck music as John had heard before she appeared to him. These things have nothing to do with Ian's life. She is John's haunting ghost and clearly she is not stuck in the house and has the ability to travel with him.

What does the sound of an ice cream truck symbolize? Two things for this play that I can think of, and both involve children. First there is the innocence of childhood, which both men shed in their adulterous forays (and I think Ian's adulterous homosexual encounter with the young male prostitute may very well have been consummated) and in their cruelty and dishonesty toward their female partners. And the second is the children that John's wife was unable to have, their childless marriage, and his anger and blame toward her for this.

John finally surmises that his wife had perhaps come back to help him. Given his distress at seeing her and hearing her voice, I doubt it. We got an unhappy spirit on our hands, what the Japanese might term a bad obake or the Chinese, a "hungry ghost." Angry at her husband's cruelty toward her.

There are situations of pleasant hauntings, where the dead or parted just want to convey love to those they left behind or assist them, but this doesn't seem one of those cases to me.

Why is Ian now able to see her? Could it be chance? Could it be that little shocker life dishes out when you buy into scientific/materialist theory and think you know it all? Or could it be that he has deeply sinned now and is so washed in guilt he is also able to see the damned? That is the darker interpretation. I prefer to think of it as a little shocker because of his telling John that at one point in his life when he was still in the Church he would have wanted to see a ghost because he wanted to believe in God.

And the big question is, since Ian has decided to go back to his girlfriend, why see the ghost now? What change could it make in his life now? Except perhaps to remember that what you do has sin or karmic consequences, for which you may pay later, and which you cannot ultimately escape. For John has not escaped this ghost that follows him about and hides behind doors wherever he goes...

All the acting, by everyone, was superb and Platt's monologue in the third scene was a masterpiece. Updated On: 4/29/06 at 07:01 PM

[Madame X]

Posted: 4/29/06 at 11:06pm

I saw it tonight and had to search for your guys' help to help me figure out the ghost at the end too. I think how John's wife died is the key to all of this (which unfortunately seems to be buried in that neverending monologue). Could it be whatever guilt was haunting John about his wife's death, which he seemed to reconcile with by the end of the show, now transferred to Ian, who is going to go live his "straight" life in Limerick? Without knowing the whole story, I could just be making stuff up though.

The rest of the show was fine. I actually kind of liked it for the most part. My mind definitely wandered during that 2nd monologue of Oliver's which unfortunately caused me to tune him out during his final lines on stage, right before the surprise at the end. What did he say as he was walking out the door?

Here's some help:
http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000127.php

Updated On: 4/29/06 at 11:06 PM

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 1:49pm

Anyone going to Shining City, please pick up all the details you can on the how and where of the wife's death.

A little info on the Chinese idea of "hungry ghosts":

http://ncnc.essortment.com/hungryghostfes_rjkb.htm

If you go down to Chinatown, you can find little shops with paper replicas of clothes, cars, you name it, that are burned to benefit and appease the dead.

And as an aside, the bright red of the ghost's coat came to symbolize his own guilt to John, and red has long been the color associated with harlotry and adultery. Updated On: 4/30/06 at 01:49 PM

[Madame X]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 9:04pm

rick posted this on ATC and I thought I'd repost it here as food for thought:

Near the end, O'Byrne's character says there was a time when he'd have liked to have seen a ghost just to prove that there was something/anything else out there -- an afterlife -- that would justify his years as a priest. Platt's character underlines this by saying "You mean, like God?" As an ex-priest, O'Byrne's char. has had doubts (no pun intended) about his faith. By the end, the client & the therapist have exchanged places somewhat but also learned from each other. I don't think it's important that the ghost is Platt's wife; she's just a sign of an afterlife.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 5/1/06 at 11:56am

Did anyone get the details on how exactly the wife bit the dust YET?????????!!!!!!!!!

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 7:55pm

After seeing, and really, really LIKING this play a lot...I can't answer that question either.

But I too agree that it doesn't matter who the ghost character is, she isn't credited in the playbill anywhere, so her "character" isn't supposed to be important to us - just her "being". Thats what I got from that part of the play anyway.

That said...I was highly intruiged and liked this a lot more than I thought I would. The acting by all 4 individuals is top notch boardering on Brilliant by Oliver Platt. Martha Plimpton is fantastic in her one conflicted scene and Brian O'Byrne certainly is a wonderful central figure throughout. Peter Scannavino (sp?) was great in his role as the scuzzy trick as well.

I hope the reviews are good for this one because it really made me stop, think, and still days later continue to think about it. To me it was a complexly layered play about the realization of ones emotions in conflict with other human individuals. F*CKin' great...ya know!

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 8:47pm

The wife died in a car accident...Oliver Platt mentioned it in the first scene.

Saw it Friday night and really enjoyed it. Even though I knew the ending beforehand, it was still shocking! Excellent acting by all four actors.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 8:59pm

I think it's quite clear actually. The ghost is Oliver Platt's dead wife. Throughout the play, the psycologist helps him come to terms with his wife's death, enforcing the reality that ghosts do not exist. Oliver's second monologue (with all of the text messaging) makes it clear that he felt EXTREME guilt. It is clear that the wife was treated unfairly. Since the psycologist helps him to get over his guilt, the dead wife appears to the psycologist at the end, implying that we have been misled throughout the whole play and that ghosts do exist. The ghost was mad because her husband's guilt was her only form of revenge. Since he is over it, however, she will haunt the person who took away her eternal opportunity for revenge (the psycologist). Sorry if that was long-winded! .

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 9:03pm

bjh, that made everything totally clear. thank you!!

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 2:42am

Saw the play today and there was a very interesting discussion with Brían and Oliver. Very, very interesting in deed. I've been a fan of Brían's since DOUBT but this...this was icing on the cake. I only wish I would have seen him in FROZEN now.

I can't wait to see what's up for him next. He is an incredible actor, and I've developed quite a crush on him...

[Magdalene]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 1:53pm

John's wife was in a taxi, and the taxi was hit.

Did anyone else notice that the 2 main characters had the same name????

Ian is the Celtic version of John....

Updated On: 6/14/06 at 01:53 PM