Comedies

The most important thing that reading these comedies has taught me is that you can't have a play that is entirely funny. If you write jokes back to back for the entire ten minutes of your ten minute plays, people are going to leave the playhouse wondering what the point was. You have to intersperse a serious(ish) theme into your play to be able to get any sort of point across to your audience. I guess dramas do this too, but I supposed I just didn't notice it as much in the dramas because i'm more used to reading them. In these comedies, the serious parts in the plays and the not-so-serious parts really stood out.
Probably none stood out so much to me as the ending part in "Duet for Bear and Dog" where the author emphasized the bear going out with her young "into the still of the night". Now, maybe having this dramatic moment be so dramatic was the entire point of the play, maybe it was meant to be satirical. Also, I suppose that the theme of getting rid of the bear humanely is a serious-ish theme. However, the serious at the end of this play didn't really work for me. It simply felt like it didn't belong there, and although the words themselves were nice, they seemed to be stuck in as if the author said, "oh no, I have to have a serious part in my play now, and i'm at the end and nothing's been serious!"
"Aimee" worked better for me as a sort of black comedy that interspersed serious themes. In an age of the Patriot Act and unauthorized survelliance, the play carries a strong political message that is easy to find and serious enough. However, this political message is emphasized by Madge revealing how truly ridiculous the political issue is.