Generally speaking, I don't really like to read plays. As this was required reading for an English course I later dropped, I didn't want to read it even more. For whatever reason, reading plays isn't that exciting to me. I would rather see it acted out by a cast of lovely actors in a dimly lit theatre that blasts that AC like we're walking on the sun. Oddly enough, I was happy that I was forced to read this.
As if it wasn't already obvious, this play focuses on the idea of betrayal. While most plays start at the beginning and have a specific end point or perhaps focus on flashbacks, this worked more like a Tarantino film in the sense that we started at the very end and worked backwards to figure out how we got to page one. That might have been what I enjoyed most, to be honest. I had so many questions with each year the story took us back to and just wanted some answers. That was the thing. You couldn't get the answers by setting down the book and thinking, "Okay. This is what's going to happen. I just know it." No, you fool. You don't know it. You don't understand it until the very last page.
The relationship between the four characters is completely messed up, but in the most interesting way. It really gives you an idea of how easily someone can feel like they aren't getting enough out their lives, so they think it's A-OK to go ahead and act out of impulse. It's a very human play that sort of makes you stop and think. Are people really this self-absorbed? Why are people so dishonest? Why do so many find it necessary to one up one another in the hurt department? It causes the mind to be a bit cynical, but sometimes, we all have those moments. Then we remember it was just a play.
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