13 November 2010

The Man who Came to Dinner

     I attended and watched the play The Man who Came to Dinner on Friday night, November 12. This play was a great experience. To me it evoked the nature of the well known novel by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. Since Christmas is just around the corner, I thought this play would end with Mr. Whiteside finally coming to the realization that he was a selfish and cynical man, just like Scrooge. I thought this was going to happen when, by the end of the play, everybody was turning against Mr. Whiteside and it looked like he was going to lose his secretary (Maggie). I thought for sure he was going to help the Doctor with his book, apologize to the nurse and Stanley's kids, let Maggie marry Burt, and drop the suit against Mr. Stanley. But that would have been easy to predict and would fall under Corrigan's idea of "fast food literature." This play was a fine dining experience, after all it was 10 bucks! I have learned throughout this literature course, some works of literature are not made to solely convey morals. This play was mostly about the development of Mr. Whiteside's character. When Mr. Stanley gave Whiteside the fifteen minute count to get out of the house, I thought he would change his attitude but he did not. Maybe an underlying theme here is how a little bit of wealth and fame can cause one to want more wealth and fame. I think Mr. Whiteside would have been embarrassed to admit to all of his friends in high places that he accidentally fell and broke his hip, but instead he wanted to suit the Stanley’s for 150,000$ to make it look like it was their fault for his mistake, or just out of pure greed. I cannot help but think of the verse in James 2:6 "Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?" The actors in this play were very talented; Mr. Whiteside's character played a great role. The one thing that astonishes me is how these actors can stay in character for that long of time, and especially after those 10 minute intermissions. Bravo to the actors and the theatre department for choosing a work that was not ordinary and especially not ordinary for this time of year.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, I loved your blog. You really got into it there. I liked how you compared it to A Christmas Carol. He was just like Mr. Scrooge. I was disappointed that he did not change. The ending was pretty crappy.

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