Fable
The Boys Next Door starts with a handicapped man by the name of Arnold who explains to the audience that he is slow, and that the other men he live with are also slow, besides their caretaker, Jack. Jack watches over handicapped men in this story however the conflict seems to revolve around him and not these men Arnold, Barry, Lucien and Norman.
We see several sides of how some people take advantage of these boys right from the beginning, Arnold goes to the store to simply get some Wheeties and forgets how many he wanted, well he asks the store clerk how many one person could need and the man replies “17”. Arnold could only find 9 boxes of wheeties so he then bought 7 heads of lettuce and some charcoal briquettes to add up to 17. These sort of situations happen to these men ( or boys ) throughout the entire show.
Lucien is one of the Men who live in the house , he is obsessed from the beginning about his library card and the smell of the library, he is one of the more challenged in the group and you can tell by the way he words short sentences and ideas. The show takes place over two months and there are even times where the characters break into the Audience to really bring the to life on the daily situations they go through. We see these characters go through daily hardships, from Norman and his desire to continually mess with the keys that dangle from his waist and his love for Sheila. He finally gains the courage about half way through the show to ask her to dance at the dance, one of the more memorable parts of the show. We see the love from these two continue throughout the entire show and it really creates for a bond between audience and characters.
There never seems to be a distinguished main plot for the story however everything seems to be centralized the main conflict that Jack is realizing that he needs to move on with his life and continue to do other things, this is a continual character break day that we see him shift into as the play progresses. Even when he manages to receive another job the audience is still left with an uneasy feeling of whether or not it will provide fulfillment for him.
Plot Summary :
Tom Griffin didn't do anything spectacular when he wrote his dramatic comedy "The Boys Next Door," but he did give us a light-hearted play that takes a risk in its premise: It is about mentally retarded adults.
That the play dares to let them be funny is admirable; the temptation among over-reactionary types would be to assert that a comedy involving the mentally handicapped is automatically mocking those people. That the Provo Theatre Company production, directed by David Morgan, pulls it off without seeming to make fun of its subjects is also worthy of praise.
The setting is a group home supervised by Jack (Tom Nibley), a gaunt, graying man who loves the men he cares for but is feeling burnt out by his responsibility to them. First there is Arnold (Scott Wilkinson), whom Jack tells us is "marginal" as far as being retarded, but who is most definitely a nervous, obsessive sort of fellow. Norman (Steve Dunford) is high-functioning, works at a doughnut shop and has a sweet crush on Sheila (Kimberley Cote), who is also mentally challenged. Lucien (J. Tekulve Vann) is somewhat less able to function in society, a fact that comes into play when the government mistakenly concludes otherwise and discontinues his Social Security payments.
And then there's Barry (Christopher Clark), who is not retarded but schizophrenic. (He believes he is a golf pro.) Jack says he doesn't belong in the group home, and he certainly seems to be a world apart from his housemates. Late in the play, we meet Barry's uncaring father (Bob Nelson, understudying for Paul DeWitt), whose rough demeanor is the opposite of how the play believes men such as Barry ought to be treated.
Griffin clearly did not intend for the humor to be at the expense of the retarded characters, but it does stem naturally from the fact that they are retarded. That is to say, much of what's funny -- their reaction to a mouse in their apartment, Norman's obsession with keys, and so on -- would play out much differently if they were not mentally challenged. These characters happen to be, and the play honestly examines their particular foibles in a manner that is funny and at times even hilarious.
The play is little more than a series of vignettes, with only minor plot threads connecting them, and as such there is a feeling of fragmentation about it. But the acting is extremely well done, with each of the actors carefully -- and usually successfully -- balancing the line between portraying real people and becoming stereotypes.
It reaches its emotional peak in the scene between Barry and his father, a difficult conversation that plays out with the right mix of awkwardness and sensitivity. The comic zenith, meanwhile, is Norman's completely unhinged behavior while on a date with Sheila -- a date that consists of sitting in the apartment and discussing keys.
Not everything works -- Barry's conversations with his deaf neighbor seem farcical and out of place -- but much more is right about the play than wrong. It's a funny, gentle production.
(http://www.ericdsnider.com/theater/the-boys-next-door-1/ )
Exegesis
1. Exegesis
a. African Violet - A small East African plant (genus Saintpaulia, family Gesneriaceae) with heart-shaped velvety leaves and violet, pink, or white flowers, widely cultivated as a houseplant
b. (39) Nyet - Russian for “No”
c. (44) Aberation - A departure from what is normal, usual, or expected. (http://www.dictonary.com/)
d. (75) Chambray - A linen-finished gingham cloth with a white weft and a colored warp, producing a mottled. (http://www.wikipedia.com/)
e. (21) Subcommittee - committee composed of some members of a larger committee, board, or other body and reporting to it (http://www.dictonary.com/)
f. (7) Charcoal briquettes – Is a block of flammable wood or other material to start a fire.
g. (30) Conspiratorially- characteristic of conspirators or a conspiracy (http://www.thefreedictonary.com/)
h. ( 28) Petulantly - Unreasonably irritable or ill-tempered; peevish. (http://www.thefreedictonary.com/)
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