Mercy Me

Hey all:

Okay, so in a few hours we will all be in class, on the eve of 9/11/2008, talking about The Mercy Seat. I really have no idea how it will go. It's a difficult play, I think, to discuss: how do we deal with selfishness on a day when all those lives were completely destroyed? It seems as if the characters don't really think about the events that are happening outside their window at all but rather are so self-absorbed that their "problems" out weigh the situation? Or is there more? Check out here for a review of the play when it was preformed in 2002.

I look forward to our conversation tonight and here are some thoughts that I hope we can talk about in class.

The obvious way to start our discussion will be with the title of the play itself. The Mercy Seat is biblical (Labute was a member of the Church of Latterer Day Saints until they excommunicated him for his play bash) and it was the cover for the arc of the covenant. So obvious questions come to me right away: what the heck does it have to do with Abby and Ben? I think it makes more sense if you look at the epigraph at the beginning of the play and the lyrics from the Nick Cave song, The Mercy Seat. You can find the lyrics here. Focus on the words, "measuring of truth." Where is the truth in this play? Do all of the lies that Abby and Ben tell/live lead to any sort of truth at the end?

In tonight's class, I also want to talk about the Preface because I think it clearly states what the author thinks this play is about: it's the "ground zero" of our lives; the "gaping hole" that is in us when we are with someone we no longer love but can't bring ourselves to tell them. Notice I wrote "us" because Labute says Abby and Ben are us. Is that true? Are we like Abby and Ben too afraid to "measure the truth" and instead we put on our "nike's" and run away?

Labute also states that this play is about personal selfishness on a day of national selflessness. Something pricks me a bit about that statement. Isn't it hyperbolic to say that the nation was selfless that day? Was it? I think about what a student in the class said about being chased in high school and attacked because he is Arab American--where is the national selflessness for that? Or does the sum of the parts equal greater than the individual acts?

This is a very short play, so arbitrarily, I want to break the play into seven sections and then have seven groups read through the ten pages and preform a few pages of the material to the class. Why? I think it will be important for us to hear the play. Terrence writes in his blog, he was annoyed by all of the "/" breaks in the dialogue. It might help then if we hear it so we can get a better understanding of how these two characters interrupt and push each other. Another reason is that this is a play and plays are meant to be performed, not read. The way that an individual reads a particular line will have an effect on the meaning of that line. So I want to discuss how your individual performances changed the meaning of the words (and possibly the meaning of the characters themselves). I realize that reading a play that is sexually explicit might be tough for some of us to read (and hear). But if we are creating a safe intellectually driven space in our classroom, we should all feel confident that our readings will lead us to uncover deeper meanings.

Pages 1-10

The first thing we hear is a cell phone. Buzzing and Buzzing. Dust covers the inside of the apartment and the characters. The clouds that we all have seen on video of the Towers falling have made its way inside the apartment of these two lovers. And what are they talking about: the phone. Or, they use the term, "The call." Ben was supposed to call his wife to both tell her that he was alive AND to tell her that he is leaving her. But none of that is mentioned, just the euphemism. Round about discussions as if they don't really want to talk about it straight on. At least Ben doesn't. Abby seems to and her anger at Ben is clear. Her elbows are out and she going after him?
Who is Abby? I kept trying to figure her out in these pages. She seems as if she is in control and her anger is there (and justifiable). And yet, she's buying cheese for Ben and we find out that she also calls for Ben's laundry to see if it was done a few days before. Is she Ben's boss, his lover and his domestic? She also questions if he is "human" or not (8). Knowing Labute's tendency for sexism (just watch IN THE COMPANY OF MEN if you are wondering) I just wonder if he's setting up a character who is a "controlling female boss" in the business world who, of course, is really upset that she doesn't have a man at home or any kids to fulfill herself. Labute isn't blatant with his stereotypes, but it something to watch out for.

PAGES 11-20
Here is where things begin to get revealed. Abby is pushing Ben. But for what? What does she want? For Ben, we find out that the towers falling means that there is "unlimited potential" for them. That the death of all those people represented a "meal ticket." And while the specifics get talked about later on in the play, it is not really discussed here, which bothers me. I keep thinking about how they are going to just disappear? Do they have a plan?

But Abby is not concerned about this--it seems. And really, maybe she was never going to run away with Ben in the first place. Maybe she was just trying to get him to make the call to his wife. But what she is doing in these ten pages is trying to figure out what type of person her really is. She says on page 10, "I don't know where you are." It's as if he IS among the lost of 9/11 and she is sifting through the dust to find him--the real him. And she is trying to get him to talk about his feelings about the chaos outside but he just can't. And his reasoning is that he feels "shitty" but any word that you use to describe it (like "tragedy" or "biblical") doesn't do the event justice. (This I agree with; every time I go to a funeral I never know what to say: "I'm sorry for your loss" as if "loss" covers the pain of seeing a loved one in a casket). But Ben has other reasons--he knows that this is not biblical; there will be a Yankee game soon and people will put this behind them. "The American Way" is discussed and it is so trite that Ben just becomes so weak in my eyes. If Abby is pushing to see who Ben is, he doesn't come across very good in my eyes.

Couple of things.
1)There is mention of friends of the victims putting up posters. I still remember walking by all those posters and just looking at them for hours on end.

2)I never heard of the Amazing Kreskin but apparently he was/ is famous. Check out his website.

3)Audie Murphy was also mentioned and brought up the discussion of heroes. Check out a memorial website to him here.

Pages 21-30.
More back and forth between Abby and Ben and the zingers back and forth are getting more heated and barbed. But a couple of things really stand out for me: We find out that Ben works for Abby and that he is very insecure about the whole thing. And Abby doesn't seem to have a problem slapping Ben in the face with this fact. And when Ben says to Abby that "You belittle me. You make me feel small." and Abby continues to make fun of him, I wonder why they are together in the first place (not the first or last time I thought this). But we find out that Abby wants Ben to be a hero. We need to discuss this in class, for sure. What/who is a hero? Do all the people who died in the Towers become heroes in their death? Is the word hero used because we just don't like using the word "victim?" Not sure but we find out that Ben can become a hero, or thinks he can, by just becoming one of the lost. So a guy who is hiding out in his lover's apartment while his daughter's are crying thinking that their father is dead, becomes a hero because he was supposed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (but for him it was the right place at the right time).

Pages 31-40
Some major things are revealed in these ten pages. Ben says that he is "faking" it in life and his life (including what he was doing with Abby) is a mess. He's a mess. So the "mealticket" allows him to erase his past. Notice, he doesn't want to deal with it, he only wants to erase. Make it disappear.

But we also find out about Abby as well and that she feels awful that she is sleeping with her employee. It is sexual harassment and, if found out, she could lose her job. And for what? She says that on occasion she thinks of Ben as a "piece of ass" which Ben is okay with being thought of as. What do we do with this? Again, I go back to the same question--who is Abby? Ben is getting more and more rounded out here (and I really don't like him) but Abby is still hiding from view a bit.

Pages 41-50
This is the most frank discussion of sex so far in the play. Why is it here? Is the description of sexual positions important? Or is it here just to shock the reader/audience? I'll be interested in what you have to say. But one of the things that is revealed is that Abby does feel guilty (one of the reasons she thinks about Ben's wife when they have sex) and says that hell is "All the wrongful shit played out there in front of you while you're being pumped from behind by someone you've hurt" (45). So when she is having sex with Ben, she feels like she is in Hell.

We then get into more of a discussion of the "hero" when Abby asks Ben what would be on his gravestone. When Ben says, "He was okay" (47), and this is what leads Abby to be nicer to him--I just didn't believe it. It all sounds a bit too perfect for me..

Pages 51-60
Here we finally get a view of the plan that Ben has to run away. And it all sound so childish, doesn't it? How far must Ben be gone to actually believe his story and that Abby will leave everything and start anew? But after hearing his story, I have a new respect for Abby--she never was going to leave. She just wanted him to talk it out so he would make the phone call and tell his wife.

What really brought this play to a standstill was the doorbell ringing and the woman who may or may not have a husband anymore asks for milk from Abby. It just grounds the play so well and puts into perspective the conversation that is going on between Abby and Ben. Their "problem" just sounds so simple compared to the what that woman and her children are going through.

61-70
I'm wondering how surprised everyone was at the end of the play--did you know he was going to call Abby the whole time? I'll admit it, I didn't (but I never get anything. The sixth sense still surprises me even though I've seen it three times). But there is this discussion of Mercy again. Abby says that she will show him Mercy; something that Ben hasn't given her. So much to talk about this ending but since it's almost class time, I'll just leave it here.

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Whew! I didn't think I would write so much but I wanted to get some of my ideas down before we head into class. Take these ideas for what they are--just some quick thoughts--but I hope you all bring your energetic "A" game to class.

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I want us to discuss some of these links in class. Tough to watch.

Plane hitting

South Tower--cbs news

Onward!