Collapse is about a group of people who are lost & floating in a reality that looks familiar but feels completely foreign. The more they try to control the events around them, the less successful they become at doing so. Allison Moore has created a world that reflects the anxieties of a society that feels like it is at times sliding down the side of a cliff towards an unknown destination. Is it going to be a soft landing into a mountain of pillows, or a wet, messy one into a pit of alligators? (playbill)
You haven't gone to work in weeks, your wife's pumped full of hormones and your sister-in-law has just announced she's moving in. What better time to go on a secret mission as a drug mule? The stakes keep rising in Allison Moore's anxious new comedy of loss and recovery amid the rubble of modern life. Jan 13 - 29, Third Rail Repertory, 1111 SW Broadway (Winningstad Th.), $30-40.
WARNING: SPOILERS
The set was in the style of (I don't know it's official title, but I call it) theater in the round. The stage was in the middle and there were seats on all 4 sides. It was completely uneven, like pavement that had experienced a mudslide or massive earthquake underneath. Additionally, there was a 3 story high ledge (which the actors used) and floating pieces of looked-like-street-pavement hanging from the air. The lowest portion required the actors to enter/exit carefully to avoid head bumps.
Of all the 12 Step programs to represent a dysfunctional member of, the author chose SAA (well, and Al-Anon, peripherally, but mostly SAA). Now, she is from Minneapolis (the land of treatment centers), but one rarely encounters S programs in theater so that REALLY surprised me.
I was struck by how completely & promptly the visiting sister betrayed the confidences, how it was obviously a life-long pattern, and how the home sister must have known this full well, and yet (wrongly) entrusted again.
Then, the visiting sister does a magnificent job at hoisting the responsibility/ follow through for her package delivery on to her brother-in-law, and as that goes poorly, is equally skilled at transferring the worry/ responsibility for his absence on to her home sister.
Good gawd, and then there were the 100 little inappropriate things the SAA in relapse does. The good part of that was that since he carried it through to a clear & obvious-to-anyone inappropriateness, even eventually saying "I realize now I'm in a slip," that one wouldn't be left with the misunderstanding that his behaviors were clean & appropriate.
(I also found myself remembering several times when older men, more experienced in both AA/NA and life, tried that icky blend of program insight with inappropriate little moves with me during my first few years clean which, if successful, would've added up to sexual liaisons. My Fort Knox defenses guarded me so well, though, that none of them, newcomer or oldtimer, were able to "get" me in that way. That undoubtedly was a massive boon to my recovery, as it increased my sense of safety [and decreased my experience of betrayal] in the rooms.)
"Talk backs," where the cast comes out for questioning after the show, are something I always appreciate. At other venues they tend to last longer, but here they happen after every show, so those two sorta even out. I wish half of it wasn't taken by asking the audience what their "take away" from the show was, but, on the other hand, it's my chance to photograph the set & cast without any snarling from ushers.
--REALLY BIG SPOILERS BELOW--
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DRAMA TRIANGLE ANALYSIS
Because Visiting Sister's basic life strategy is "I refuse to take responsibility/ action on my own behalf" she's definitely a Victim, even though she puts an optimistic, carefree spin on it rather than "poor me" histrionics.
Home Sister is harried, rushed, frantically trying to keep everything together for everyone, not even blinking before accepting others' responsibility on to her own plate: a perfect example of an unrecovering Al-Anon (or any other "family & friends" program)... undoubtedly a Rescuer.
Did you notice that it was the wife who got the ticket for the bridge incident, and not the husband? It was a perfect example of how the -Anon can LOOK even crazier to the outside world.
Program Man utilizes the tidbits of truth, insight and massively larger experience as a 12 Stepper to push the sexual envelope with a frightened, confused, overwhelmed newcomer, protesting (social vs. psychological level) his motivations along the way, although because newcomer's boundaries are so terrible events are allowed to progress to disgraceful consequences (hand in pants, kissing)... it could (and does) happen in any program, EVEN MORE in not-S-programs: we call it 13th Stepping, on cop shows they call them perpetrators but TA names it Persecutor.
Yes, Husband steps in to make Visiting Sister's delivery for her (sounds like Rescuer)... but doesn't complete the task (sounds like Victim). Husband is chaotic, unkept, and powerless (sounds like Victim)... but takes action (albeit unwisely) a couple times to try to improve his situation (drinking, climbing bridge). A few years ago I might've been confused, but IMO he's clearly not on the triangle... not with other people, at least.
Visiting Sister was right about one thing: an alcoholic would NEVER mindlessly pour the remainder of their beer into a potted plant. They might eat the dirt to suck the alcohol out of the plant, though. Husband is using a poor tool, but he is NOT an alcoholic.
One could argue that he's on the drama triangle with himself, in that his unresolved trauma (one's car falling into river from a collapsing bridge is a legitimate PTSD inciting experience) is Persecutor; his distressed, disorganized response to the trauma acts as Victim; and his ill-chosen attempts at resolution act as Rescuer.
I don't co-sign that, however. Transactional Analysis is very clear: a fireman carrying a baby out of a burning building is a rescuer, a wife calling in sick for her drunk husband is a Rescuer; a survivor of unbearable circumstances is victim, a life strategy of refusing to be accountable is a Victim. Real life rescuers or victims are not game players, they are people in a circumstance. I stand on "Husband is not on the triangle." Inept choices (climbing the bridge instead of telling wife about elevators and company move) don't, by definition, equal drama triangle.
Sometimes we don't know for sure until hindsight. For example, in the "Yes, but" game it isn't until the instigator refuses EVERY suggestion and then gloats inside that we know it was a game. If the person eventually accepts and acts upon a solution, as Husband did at the play's conclusion, we can hypothesize it was a legitimate cry for help (and therefore not a game).
DRAMA TRIANGLE ANALYSIS
Because Visiting Sister's basic life strategy is "I refuse to take responsibility/ action on my own behalf" she's definitely a Victim, even though she puts an optimistic, carefree spin on it rather than "poor me" histrionics.
Home Sister is harried, rushed, frantically trying to keep everything together for everyone, not even blinking before accepting others' responsibility on to her own plate: a perfect example of an unrecovering Al-Anon (or any other "family & friends" program)... undoubtedly a Rescuer.
Did you notice that it was the wife who got the ticket for the bridge incident, and not the husband? It was a perfect example of how the -Anon can LOOK even crazier to the outside world.
Program Man utilizes the tidbits of truth, insight and massively larger experience as a 12 Stepper to push the sexual envelope with a frightened, confused, overwhelmed newcomer, protesting (social vs. psychological level) his motivations along the way, although because newcomer's boundaries are so terrible events are allowed to progress to disgraceful consequences (hand in pants, kissing)... it could (and does) happen in any program, EVEN MORE in not-S-programs: we call it 13th Stepping, on cop shows they call them perpetrators but TA names it Persecutor.
Yes, Husband steps in to make Visiting Sister's delivery for her (sounds like Rescuer)... but doesn't complete the task (sounds like Victim). Husband is chaotic, unkept, and powerless (sounds like Victim)... but takes action (albeit unwisely) a couple times to try to improve his situation (drinking, climbing bridge). A few years ago I might've been confused, but IMO he's clearly not on the triangle... not with other people, at least.
Visiting Sister was right about one thing: an alcoholic would NEVER mindlessly pour the remainder of their beer into a potted plant. They might eat the dirt to suck the alcohol out of the plant, though. Husband is using a poor tool, but he is NOT an alcoholic.
One could argue that he's on the drama triangle with himself, in that his unresolved trauma (one's car falling into river from a collapsing bridge is a legitimate PTSD inciting experience) is Persecutor; his distressed, disorganized response to the trauma acts as Victim; and his ill-chosen attempts at resolution act as Rescuer.
I don't co-sign that, however. Transactional Analysis is very clear: a fireman carrying a baby out of a burning building is a rescuer, a wife calling in sick for her drunk husband is a Rescuer; a survivor of unbearable circumstances is victim, a life strategy of refusing to be accountable is a Victim. Real life rescuers or victims are not game players, they are people in a circumstance. I stand on "Husband is not on the triangle." Inept choices (climbing the bridge instead of telling wife about elevators and company move) don't, by definition, equal drama triangle.
Sometimes we don't know for sure until hindsight. For example, in the "Yes, but" game it isn't until the instigator refuses EVERY suggestion and then gloats inside that we know it was a game. If the person eventually accepts and acts upon a solution, as Husband did at the play's conclusion, we can hypothesize it was a legitimate cry for help (and therefore not a game).
Want to know more about the Drama Triangle? Click HERE.
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