A part of the script where I enjoyed realities interacting was in Scene Eight, where Elliot, pretending to be haikumom, has a conversation online with orangutan. Elliot and Yaz have just visited Odessa, asking her to contribute money for flowers for the funeral. Odessa, no money on hand, tells them to go get her computer and pawn it for cash. When Elliot and Yaz go to get the computer, they log on, presumably to wipe it clean, and the chatroom pops up. Elliot and orangutan get into a scuffle, but Yaz reveals that he's haikumom's son. Orangutan, in turn, reveals Odessa has told the forum about Elliot's addiction to pain meds, which Yaz didn't know about.
I think Hudes has these particular realities intersecting at this particular moment in the plot because it intelligently shows that all characters are linked by the central struggle of drug addiction. It also shows the mirror between fountainhead's keeping his addiction from his wife, just like Elliot never told Yaz about his problem. I think Hudes was trying to show that the same problems can be found in the online chatroom world just as easily in the real world. Elliot says at one point, "What I am: sober. What I am not and never will be: a pathetic junkie like you." He tries to think of himself as above the people his mom is talking to online, but he's really no better off. Orangutan makes Elliot face his fears, both with the self-realization that he too has a problem, and that he's never told Yaz.
At a later point in the play, fountainhead is having trouble saying that he has an addiction ("it's more psychological"), and the other chatroom members prod him until he finally says it. Elliot again faces the same problem, saying "the only thing left from those days is the nightmares". This moment in the scene is a way for Hudes to show that everyone can be connected by the same issues, but people deal with them in different ways.
This is some good stuff right here! It seems like there's a pattern of the chatroom members' loved ones discovering about their spouse's/child's/relative's addiction through seeing their online conversations. The chatroom is the addicts' exclusive, private "alternate universe" where their words and struggles are safe, yet in the outside world, their struggles become real issues that need constant attending to. I like how you said "the same problems can be found in the online chatroom room just as easily as in the real world," cause it seems that the characters who have their lives together in the chatroom seem to be struggling the most in the real world, and the ones who are open about their problems and are free to admit their addictions online are more successful. It just goes to show that both worlds are equally valid and that all problems are equally important, whether in a chatroom or in real life.
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting is that you talk about the connection being a discovery that all problems are the same no matter where you face them. What is very interesting to look at is how we first see Elliot confront his addiction while inside of the chatroom. The chatroom is an important tool used in this play. It is a reality where everyone is accepted for there problems, but an acceptance that only comes when you are able to admit that you actually have a problem.
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