Dragon Slayers 3

For this specific go around of IART blogs, I decided to shake things up. Instead of going to the art installment at the Ridges, I decided to attend a play reading of a play called “The Appointment/Dragon Slayers 3” done by a friend of mine on January 23, 2010. Unfortunately it was an event that occurred over just one evening, and it was in a rather informal manner, meaning it was by word of mouth and not a very highly regarded event. Gabrielle Wiker, the author, is in our OU’s very own playwriting program. She held her very quaint, modest event inside of room 203 of Kantner Hall, expressing that she only wanted to introduce her close friends and colleagues to work that had been stewing within her mind for years whilst also getting a feel for how it would be to experience it beyond just reading.

Room 203 was a very bare basics room, various props and extras from other plays strewn haphazardly about the room, giving it a very “distressed playwright” kind of feel. Roughly 20 people showed up for the event, keeping it small and intimate. We were seated in two lines across a back wall of this dark room whilst the actors for the first play simply sat in front of us, their scripts in front of them. Although it was meant to simply be a read-through, her actors were dressed the part, giving the simple evening another level of element. Additional actors were sitting side stage, but it was simply the two main characters and narrator that sat in front of the audience. Without much introduction, the play began quite simply, introducing two characters called Lawrence and Thomas, both fully grown men sitting in an empty waiting room at a doctor’s office. As the play progresses, Lawrence shows to be a very upfront and confrontational character without being offensive. Thomas, on the other hand, seems to want nothing to do with Lawrence although the other man is simply curious about Thomas’s reasons for being there. It is when Lawrence begins to question Thomas on a level that requires deep thought, meaning, and passion to respond that Thomas begins to show agitation, yet a subjective understanding for his own perspective on life. Lawrence reveals that he developed testicular cancer, the disease causing strain on his already toxic marriage. As Lawrence discusses his story and how he ended up in the present, he alludes quite frequently to how he hasn’t much time, or to how Thomas will never see the doctor he is so intent upon visiting. In his own story, he continually returns to Thomas, prompting the man in a way that forces him to recognize his pleasures within his own life. Throughout the entire play, Lawrence is saying things such as, “There is more to you than where you come from. I want to know who you are.” It is this stimulation that allows Thomas to realize how in love he is with his wife, family, and life, and how he should feel accomplished with his life. Lawrence then returns to his own plight, speaking of his misdiagnosis and how it led to the ultimate downfall of his marriage. What throws a twist into the entire play is how suddenly Lawrence becomes hostile and jumpy as sirens begin to sound in the background. It is then revealed that he killed his wife earlier that day and has taken Thomas hostage without his knowing. When Lawrence pulls a knife on Thomas, the play cuts out and ends, leaving the audience to wonder the end.

I absolutely loved the meaning and emotion that Gabrielle evoked in this play. Although it was very obvious with her use of foreshadowing, I greatly appreciated how she used one character’s dismay with his own life to bring joy and pleasure to the other before their lives were both turned, for the better or worse still unknown. It was wonderful how although Lawrence took Thomas, he still found a way to make the man appreciate his life before it was insinuated that it was taken. Some people could argue that this play was cliché and was not art, but I believe life is the most beautiful art of all. The way Lawrence prompted Thomas to appreciate his own brought the most meaning to this work.