ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING
Brustein’s choice of Marvin’s Room as his whipping boy is unfortunate, because it’s a strong play with much more going for it–lively characters, witty dialogue, a bittersweet, moving point of view–than the fact that its HIV-positive playwright wrote about living with a terminal illness. A better target might have been Activities of Daily Living, a Remains/Blue Rider coproduction. Written and performed primarily by a cast of disabled actors, this collection of five short one-acts never allows the audience to forget that it’s written and performed by the disabled. I mean, what critic would dare pan it? (Even George Bush and, God help me, Senator Orrin Hatch have worked for the disabled!)
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This pro-status quo stance is, I think, the essence of the theater of guilt. Guilt is, after all, a defense mechanism that allows us to feign concern for our actions while continuing to avoid really examining why we do what we do. (“God, I feel guilty, chomp chomp, eating this whole, chomp chomp, bag of cookies, chomp.”) Which is why corporations that benefit from our racist culture, for example, happily fund shows that “attack” racism–at least the racism of other countries (pre-1994 South Africa) or of now safely bygone eras (pre-1970 America).
