To Gillian on her 37th Birthday (or from DD's 23rd)

Hey folks, it’s your favorite daily dramaturg here, and today’s topic is Michael Brady's To Gillian on her 37^th Birthday.

I’ve always done things my own way, doing trial-and-error until I find a good, efficient formula for communicating, and this blog will be no different. I thought and thought (and thought, which is why this posting is so late!) about how best to start each play’s entry, and those thoughts brought me back to my days as a teaching assistant for an intro to theater class at my alma mater. What I found there (and coincidentally, back when I was in high school) was that there was always one girl or boy whose level of interest and attention span combined equaled that of a fruit fly on speed, so I’ll start there with each play before going up to a philosophical level and exploring more of the nuances and production histories of each play. The folks to whom I refer in the previous sentence are generally not uneducated, just have alternate interests and usually little patience, along with an affinity for Orbit. So, without further ado, here are the answers to the “Gum Snappin’ Questions."

So like, what’s the play about? And why does it have such a long name?

To Gillian on her 37^th Birthday, by Michael Brady, centers around ex-professor David, and how he deals with mourning the death of his wife Gillian (hence the title) two years prior. The play opens with David, his teenage daughter Rachel, and her friend Cindy (who is also David’s running companion) stargazing on a New England beach in August during a meteor shower, when the conversation turns to Gillian, David’s late wife and Rachel’s mother,  focusing on the disappearance from the house of Gillian’s favorite hat. Enter Esther, David’s sister-in-law, and her husband Paul, who bring former student Kevin (who is a woman, to clarify), a recent divorcee and one of David’s former students and running companion to the same beach with hopes of David striking a match with her. As Esther angrily confronts David about getting out of his slump and taking better care of Rachel , or alternatively, letting her live with Esther and Paul, Kevin and Rachel bond while bicycling together. That night, on the eve of what would’ve been her 37^th birthday, the ghost of Gillian appears to David on the beach, and they relive some of the happier times they had together, as Rachel observes from afar. It is here we learn that the foolhardy, devil-may-care Gillian died on a family sailboat outing due to a fall from the top of the mast to the deck of the ship. The next day (Gillian’s birthday), Rachel confides in Kevin her true feelings about Gillian, who was a distant mother but devoted anthropologist; Esther further chides a now more-somber-than-ever David about getting over his wife, who is also her sister; and Kevin reveals that although quite young, she is not only a recovered divorcee but mother to a young daughter. Rachel subsequently reveals some details of her mother’s death and her lack of compassion for her, as well as the previously lost hat, which she most likely planned to abandon but now keeps. Then, Kevin returns to the house, where she presents her story to the still-mourning David and asks point-blank about what really happened to Gillian. In the next scene, Gillian returns to “share” in Esther’s retelling of a childhood story, and bluntly reveals her unwillingness to be a mother to Rachel, leading into David and Gillian reenacting Gillian’s death and the circumstances surrounding it. At this point, David and Rachel’s relationship begins to heal, as David’s newfound knowledge of the real Gillian hits him; he talks about moving on, looking into taking a professorship talked about by Paul, and hinting at a possible romantic future with Kevin. Rachel reveals that she had Gillian’s hat the whole time, and in a gesture of closure, David puts it on Rachel’s head as they leave the beach together – and leave Gillian behind – for the last time.

So like, what’s the point of all this?

In a nutshell, it’s a journey through grief to realization, with some elements of fantasy thrown in.

So like, who are the characters? Who’s the protagonist? Who’s the antagonist?

There are seven characters – five female and two male. Let’s start with biggies and work our way down.

• DAVID is a university professor in his 50s. It is not revealed what he teaches; ostensibly, it is astronomy, judging from his knowledge about the subject. He is the protagonist, as the play follows his journey and he’s the one to whom Gillian appears for her moonlit beach visits. He starts off as somewhat out-of-touch, oblivious to his daughter’s desire to be close to him and to Cindy’s flirtatious advances. He is revealed to have a preexisting relationship with Kevin, the woman his sister-in-law sets him up with.  He didn’t come off as particularly sympathetic up until the end, when it’s clear that he’s put Gillian and his time with her into perspective.

• RACHEL is David’s 16 year old daughter. She is best characterized as being motherly – namely, mothering her own father by keeping tabs on his health and seemingly having mothered herself, due to her tense relationship with her own mother. A supporting character to the protagonist, is attracted to Kevin’s breezy and laid-back nature, and drawn to her because she is the only other member of the party without a deep commitment to the Gillian/David relationship and they bond over that. Fiercely independent, she resists her aunt Esther. Rachel was one of my favorite characters; she is strong-willed and seems to have a good grip on reality throughout the play.

• CINDY is 16 years old and a friend of Rachel. I found it unclear as to why she is there, other than being somewhat of a young “jailbait” love interest of David and a bit of amusement to Paul. Though she’s said to be “Rachel’s friend,” she and Rachel seem to have little in common. She is described as being in shape, seeing as she is David’s “running companion.” It never seems evident that David and Cindy’s flirtation will result in any sort of relationship between them due to their stark age and maturity difference. Overall, she’s a secondary character, somewhat of a wild card.

• KEVIN is a recent divorcee and one of David’s former university students. Much like Cindy, Kevin was at one point David’s “running companion.” Unlike Cindy, Kevin is closer in age to David and at a point in her life where a relationship with a man like David seems possible. I found her to be a bit demanding, as, like Cindy, she’s not a blood relative, but it was obvious that David and Kevin still have some flames burning from their university days. Nonetheless, Kevin, like Cindy, would be a wild card, leaning to protagonist supporter.

• ESTHER is Gillian’s thirty-something sister, which also makes her sister-in-law to David. Although she’s not evil, she could be considered an antagonist by virtue of her pretty constant antagonistic behavior towards David. She is nothing but pushy in her speeches to David, haranguing him to move on and stop feeling sorry for himself, and that Gillian was her sister before she was David’s wife, and she deserves some ownership over Gillian’s memory. She doesn’t really get along with anyone other than her own husband.

• PAUL is Esther’s husband, also in his 30s and a friend and colleague of David. He doesn’t serve much purpose to the main plot but his flirtation with Cindy is evident and significant. He reeks of secondary character.

• GILLIAN is a classic plot point character, if there ever was one. Until her appearance at the end of act one, she is painted as youthful, angelic, and David’s paragon of love. When she appears, this image starts to unravel. She’s a lot more of a risk taker and a free spirit than you would’ve believed from David’s thoughts of her, and the reenactment of her death and her speech about her hatred towards motherhood is about as blunt as they come. Even though she’s a ghost, I found her livelier than the living characters. Even through her seeming hatred of wifehood and motherhood, it’s hard not to appreciate her honest nature. And any ghost that picks a New England beach as her haunt is okay by me.

Okay, whatever. So, like, what’s going to be on the test?

What? Oh, you mean, some of the things worth remembering. Here’s a rundown of the motifs and themes (to be discussed in a future post)

•  Stargazing and star charts. This is what unites Rachel and David and keeps their relationship alive, especially mentions of who is the “star chart keeper.”
• The meteor shower. A rare event that symbolizes the rarity of true love.
• Gillian’s hat. A huge point of contention when it goes missing. To David, it’s all that remains of his wife. To Rachel, it’s the lack of Gillian’s influence on her life. Chew on that one.
• David’s potassium pills. Indicator of David’s age, mental state, and self-preservation (or lack thereof.)
• Orangutans. Gillian studied them, and she and David talk about them a lot, specifically, their mating rituals.
• The beach/water. It’s where the play takes place, where Gillian died, and where her ghost ultimately appears.

I’m not citing anything here since this entry is my own opinions, thoughts, and feelings, but rest assured, entries that are anything other than basic shall be cited accordingly.

Though it’s a pretty straightforward piece, nonetheless, I’ve got more thoughts and things and this is only the first post about the play – I’ve probably got another one or two in me.

So here it was, the initial dramaturgy-related entry. Hit me up with questions, feedback, and if you live in coastal New England, any Gillian sightings. She’s the ghost WITHOUT the hat.

Dramaturgically yours,

The Daily Dramaturg.

PS: Here’s a quote that stuck out to me from Act I, Scene I:

“DAVID: There are planets up there! New worlds springing to life, even as we speak. Think about that, just for a minute. It’s all happening again, the same glorious business. Another Jupiter, a new Saturn with her rings of crystal and ice. And it has always been right in front of us, but we couldn’t see. We are here to create new life! That is the message of Vega. But we forget. We lack vision […] Hold on to the eternals! Watch out for all this feeling business. You and me and what are you feeling, and I’m feeling and blah, blah, blah. Look to that which endures. The sea, the sky, the stars, memory, and the human heart. These are the eternals…”