“A Stool at the End of the Bar” Reflection

“A Stool at the End of the Bar” happens to be my favorite of the field trips we went on throughout this course. It was the last trip and the class really felt like a community. Everyone was discussing what they thought the twist would be and was really excited for the play to start.

When I walked into the theater and saw the small set I was surprised and thought to myself: how are they going to move all this…unless there’s only one scene? I was pleasantly surprised by how well they pulled this off. While most of the play was set inside the house, with a few shorter scenes off to the side of the main set in a church and psychologist’s office, the play had so much energy and drama that I didn’t feel like it was boring and kept to one setting. The actors really utilized the space and props to their advantage to make the play feel alive and real. The acting itself was also very impressive, especially Tony, the father, and his older son, Joey. These actors had a lot of emotion and were very convincing. The woman who played Chris on the other hand was on and off throughout the play. In some scenes she was very powerful with her delivery of lines but in others she felt plain and seemed unscathed by some of the play’s events.

Overall the play touched on some very odd but important issues and talked about themes that were considered very taboo thirty years ago when the play was written. Alex and I actually got the chance to speak with the playwright, Robert Calley who wrote the play in the 80s. It took many years before a theater accepted this play for production.