Positives
1. Watching a documentary play out is exciting. This is an interesting positive because on the surface The Book Club Play can come across as the average story on stage watched by an audience. Zacarias, however, by placing the story of the world of a documentary, has created the intriguing aspect of the play-within-a-play kind of vibe. In very few contemporary plays are the characters aware they are being watched. The members of Ana’s book club, however, are hyper aware they are being watched. The added intrigue is they are helpless in their being watched. This makes for increased tension in those moments where they wish they were the only ones in the room.
The camera acting as an additional character is impactful and directly affects many of the choices made by the characters. I immediately feel Ana is dressed pristinely for every meeting of Book Club. Rob likely feels extra pressure in being on camera due to Ana being in performance mode. The other characters each have multiple moments when they are painfully reminded that their actions are being recorded. This adds to my intrigue because you get to watch people react in very prescribed ways when they desperately want to behave with raw uncontrolled emotion. Watching people awkwardly pull themselves together is one of my favorite pastimes. An example of this is when Jen reacts to Ana telling her the footage of the documentary cannot be deleted before being viewed by those outside of the book club. The panic and fear she experiences if fascinating for multiple reasons. Why is she comfortable telling her story to Lily but not the rest of the world? While it’s very possible she has grown to trust Lily, she still doesn’t know Lars at all and she is aware he will hear it. Is it because he is in a different country? If so, what can we learn about the comfort of strangers?
Jen suffers another moment when the camera seems to become pitted against her when she and Rob have their kiss. Kissing her best friend’s husband qualifies as something she does not want the world to know about and her panic is priceless. This is a much less planned, more spontaneous moment but it still places her in an extreme amount of fear. This moment also provides a very interesting acting choice as Jen is fully aware at some point Ana will know about the kiss. Is she more on edge throughout the remainder of the play? Or more carefree because at this point, what else could be worse?
2. A black female character who is not a stereotype. Lily is a breath of fresh air as she does not fit the mold of the standard “sassy urban friend.” She is incredibly intelligent and driven, which we see from her promotion to Ana’s current position. And she loves Twilight! With Lily, Zacarias has created, a character by which a great deal of examination and discovery can occur on many levels for different topics such as race and ethnicity. Zacarias’s careful crafting of these topics begins the moment the play explicitly states Lily must be black and all other characters can be anything except for black. This informs readers the race of the characters is important and should be highly respected in regard to casting.
On the surface, it can appear Ana has specifically made Lily her token Black friend. A large part of me, at this point, believes that’s exactly what she did. But even if not seen from that perspective, it still says something about a white woman (if cast that way) inviting a younger black woman into her home and allowing her to be part of what she deems her prestigious group. From there it puts Ana under great scrutiny when she discovers her book club has not read any books written by any people of color and even more so when she assumed Lily would chose a book by one.
By no means is Lily perfect, however, as she herself makes the egregious mistake of mis-identifying/outing Will as being gay. Her reasons for assuming Will is gay are incredibly stereotypical and problematic, as she makes assumptions from the way he speaks and dresses. Because this later leads to the moment where Will realizes he is gay, it is curious to try and decipher the statement Zacarias is making by having a character live up to those stereotypes. I am looking forward to how both moments are handled as they take a comical approach to what is a very serious situation. All of this is created by Zacarias making Lily multidimensional.
3. Jen dealing with PTSD in our current climate. The Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton-esque affair Jen had with her former employer is an important issue that should not be glossed over. I think it is crucial to focus on the victim-blaming that Jen has been tortured with as “the mouse that brought down the house.” She is objectified and turned into a pest, a mere mistake made by a powerful man. At the same time, he can be forgiven while she, like Lewinsky, is reduced to simply a slightly significant footnote in history. I enjoyed seeing the other side, the more honest side, of that story and feel more enlightened for having done so. She then later receives blame from Ana for her kiss with Ron, “What is it with you and married men?” This brings light to the issue of women often being pitted against women over the affection of a man.
I am a huge fan of Jen as a character because of everything she brings to the story of The Book Club Play as a representative of women who have been objectified and victimized by double-standards and societal misogyny. As a man, my view of this is incredibly limited and I am fully aware of my own contribution to the obstacles Jen and women face daily. I look forward to learning more about the issues women face and on a deeper level and in ways I am unaware of.
4. The examination of privacy versus publicity and how it is affected by human emotion. I am greatly intrigued with the aspect of privacy and how people use it and the perception of it causes them to behave. The Book Club members are acutely aware they are being filmed and they agree to it. So, what is it that causes them to relax to the point where they stop paying attention about being filmed. And why display such hostility when a private moment is revealed. The reactions of the characters to these moments fascinates me as they can be played in multiple ways. The most interesting ways to me are: (1) as if one’s privacy is being invaded, and (2) as if asking for forgiveness for revealing too much. If one’s privacy is being invaded, at which point does that occur when you have invited someone into your life? Ana has literally invited the world into her home, knowing and hoping this will lead the Book Club members into sharing intimate feelings about themselves.
The emotions spill out in a kind of arrogance from start of the play. Why would Ana and everyone else sign up to be put on display but still feel panic and shame when those moments are revealed? There are multiple moments the book club members would have wished to remain private, but as Alex says, “There’s a camera in the room.” So how private are these moments actually? No one is spying on them, but they are obviously going to be seen by as many people as possible.
James has previously stated that he wants to examine the moments when people relax to the point where they forget about the camera. This intrigues me as well, as I am fascinated with why anyone would choose to put their private lives on display in any capacity and greatly look forward to examining the phenomenon of reality television. I also anticipate looking at the impact reality television has on social media and vice versa. People put so much of themselves online from what they had for breakfast to problems they are having in their relationship. What’s private when you have invited the world to examine your life?
Emotionally, where is the point where you feel relaxed enough to be vulnerable? And where do you draw the line? For example, the kiss between Rob and Jen is something they try to signal to Lars to edit out of the video. This would imply that they intended to keep the kiss from Ana as well as the future viewers of the video. If it really was just a meaningless-caught-up-in-the-moment kiss, then why not just immediately tell Ana? They have already shared it with Lars who they have never even met. Why not use that as a reason to confess to their spouse and best friend? There are many moments like these which give us deep gazes into human emotion that I am looking forward to exploring.
The camera acting as an additional character is impactful and directly affects many of the choices made by the characters. I immediately feel Ana is dressed pristinely for every meeting of Book Club. Rob likely feels extra pressure in being on camera due to Ana being in performance mode. The other characters each have multiple moments when they are painfully reminded that their actions are being recorded. This adds to my intrigue because you get to watch people react in very prescribed ways when they desperately want to behave with raw uncontrolled emotion. Watching people awkwardly pull themselves together is one of my favorite pastimes. An example of this is when Jen reacts to Ana telling her the footage of the documentary cannot be deleted before being viewed by those outside of the book club. The panic and fear she experiences if fascinating for multiple reasons. Why is she comfortable telling her story to Lily but not the rest of the world? While it’s very possible she has grown to trust Lily, she still doesn’t know Lars at all and she is aware he will hear it. Is it because he is in a different country? If so, what can we learn about the comfort of strangers?
Jen suffers another moment when the camera seems to become pitted against her when she and Rob have their kiss. Kissing her best friend’s husband qualifies as something she does not want the world to know about and her panic is priceless. This is a much less planned, more spontaneous moment but it still places her in an extreme amount of fear. This moment also provides a very interesting acting choice as Jen is fully aware at some point Ana will know about the kiss. Is she more on edge throughout the remainder of the play? Or more carefree because at this point, what else could be worse?
2. A black female character who is not a stereotype. Lily is a breath of fresh air as she does not fit the mold of the standard “sassy urban friend.” She is incredibly intelligent and driven, which we see from her promotion to Ana’s current position. And she loves Twilight! With Lily, Zacarias has created, a character by which a great deal of examination and discovery can occur on many levels for different topics such as race and ethnicity. Zacarias’s careful crafting of these topics begins the moment the play explicitly states Lily must be black and all other characters can be anything except for black. This informs readers the race of the characters is important and should be highly respected in regard to casting.
On the surface, it can appear Ana has specifically made Lily her token Black friend. A large part of me, at this point, believes that’s exactly what she did. But even if not seen from that perspective, it still says something about a white woman (if cast that way) inviting a younger black woman into her home and allowing her to be part of what she deems her prestigious group. From there it puts Ana under great scrutiny when she discovers her book club has not read any books written by any people of color and even more so when she assumed Lily would chose a book by one.
By no means is Lily perfect, however, as she herself makes the egregious mistake of mis-identifying/outing Will as being gay. Her reasons for assuming Will is gay are incredibly stereotypical and problematic, as she makes assumptions from the way he speaks and dresses. Because this later leads to the moment where Will realizes he is gay, it is curious to try and decipher the statement Zacarias is making by having a character live up to those stereotypes. I am looking forward to how both moments are handled as they take a comical approach to what is a very serious situation. All of this is created by Zacarias making Lily multidimensional.
3. Jen dealing with PTSD in our current climate. The Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton-esque affair Jen had with her former employer is an important issue that should not be glossed over. I think it is crucial to focus on the victim-blaming that Jen has been tortured with as “the mouse that brought down the house.” She is objectified and turned into a pest, a mere mistake made by a powerful man. At the same time, he can be forgiven while she, like Lewinsky, is reduced to simply a slightly significant footnote in history. I enjoyed seeing the other side, the more honest side, of that story and feel more enlightened for having done so. She then later receives blame from Ana for her kiss with Ron, “What is it with you and married men?” This brings light to the issue of women often being pitted against women over the affection of a man.
I am a huge fan of Jen as a character because of everything she brings to the story of The Book Club Play as a representative of women who have been objectified and victimized by double-standards and societal misogyny. As a man, my view of this is incredibly limited and I am fully aware of my own contribution to the obstacles Jen and women face daily. I look forward to learning more about the issues women face and on a deeper level and in ways I am unaware of.
4. The examination of privacy versus publicity and how it is affected by human emotion. I am greatly intrigued with the aspect of privacy and how people use it and the perception of it causes them to behave. The Book Club members are acutely aware they are being filmed and they agree to it. So, what is it that causes them to relax to the point where they stop paying attention about being filmed. And why display such hostility when a private moment is revealed. The reactions of the characters to these moments fascinates me as they can be played in multiple ways. The most interesting ways to me are: (1) as if one’s privacy is being invaded, and (2) as if asking for forgiveness for revealing too much. If one’s privacy is being invaded, at which point does that occur when you have invited someone into your life? Ana has literally invited the world into her home, knowing and hoping this will lead the Book Club members into sharing intimate feelings about themselves.
The emotions spill out in a kind of arrogance from start of the play. Why would Ana and everyone else sign up to be put on display but still feel panic and shame when those moments are revealed? There are multiple moments the book club members would have wished to remain private, but as Alex says, “There’s a camera in the room.” So how private are these moments actually? No one is spying on them, but they are obviously going to be seen by as many people as possible.
James has previously stated that he wants to examine the moments when people relax to the point where they forget about the camera. This intrigues me as well, as I am fascinated with why anyone would choose to put their private lives on display in any capacity and greatly look forward to examining the phenomenon of reality television. I also anticipate looking at the impact reality television has on social media and vice versa. People put so much of themselves online from what they had for breakfast to problems they are having in their relationship. What’s private when you have invited the world to examine your life?
Emotionally, where is the point where you feel relaxed enough to be vulnerable? And where do you draw the line? For example, the kiss between Rob and Jen is something they try to signal to Lars to edit out of the video. This would imply that they intended to keep the kiss from Ana as well as the future viewers of the video. If it really was just a meaningless-caught-up-in-the-moment kiss, then why not just immediately tell Ana? They have already shared it with Lars who they have never even met. Why not use that as a reason to confess to their spouse and best friend? There are many moments like these which give us deep gazes into human emotion that I am looking forward to exploring.