Love+Child+jl

//__The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild: A Road Trip__//

//The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild: A Road Trip// is a coordinating story of differing characters and how they fall in love at Bob's hotel off the highway. The author did an excellent job at interweaving starkly different subplots into one cohesive unit. At first the play seemed very diffuse and random, but as it progressed, its unity became much more evident. The characters slowly begin to converge from different stories into one coordinating story line. Some lines could have been written better, and some sections seemed unnecessary. For example, the storyline of Tulsa's biological father seemed irrelevant to the story and unimportant. Some of the dreams conveyed in the story also seemed less useful and detracted from the story. As a whole, however, the author pulled all the varying random effects into one coherent story. The characters were well written as well, as their highly contrasting natures kept the story interesting. The most stable character in the play was surprisingly Tulsa's hippie mother. Tulsa has serious commitment issues, Ed is an actor on the run, Valerie and Rose are conjoined twins with split personalities, Bob is a Russian expatriate, and Clyde is a redneck from Nebraska. These are only a few of the many varying characters and story lines that accompany them. I thought that the ideas communicated within the story were very worthwhile. The story was more or less a means to an end – a device to communicate certain ideas. These ideas included forgiveness, the value of love, self-sacrifice, and the appreciation of life. Each of these intangibles are incredibly important to a worthwhile and fulfilling life; therefore, I would have to agree that the subject matter was well chosen and considered. The message communicated within the story is what gave the story its value. I would say the actors were successful in communicating the author's original intent. Some of the actors were not as strong as others, but I felt that overall the acting quality was above average. Of course, I cannot be sure how true they acted to the script, as I merely saw the play. Each character stayed fairly consistent throughout the play, however, and I assume this is due to their adherence to the script itself. Much of the physical production was imaginative. The dream sequences, the death speech by Tulsa's biological father, and many other segments live purely in the imagination. Tulsa's parents even appear as projections of her subconscious from time to time, speaking to her. I would say that the play was good – neither inadequate not superb. As a whole, I felt the play was well done, but I felt it was lacking something. It may have been simply due to the play itself, and the limitations it placed upon the physical production. However, I would definitely agree the play was much more than inadequate. The audience seemed to love the play from what I could sense. They laughed at all the jokes, and they whooped and hollered at the beginning of every act. There were some jokes that seemed to pass over the heads of many of the audience members, but most were understood with relative ease. I had not traveled to the lobby between acts; I stayed by my seat and talked with friends, but most things mentioned of the play were positive. If anything, this only increased the enjoyment of the rest of the play and the excitement that accompanied it. I am not entirely sure if I would urge others to see the play. It definitely had some adult content within it, and I may not recommend it if only for that reason. However, I did enjoy the play, and I would most definitely tell others of how I did like the play and how it flowed together so beautifully. Generally, I urge my friends to come see a play that I really enjoy. I typically do this because I want to see it again, and their coming gives me a good reason to return. Although the play did quite a bit to pique my interest, I do not believe it was interesting enough to create a desire for me to read other plays by the author. In order to develop an emotion such as that within me, the play itself would have to be incredible by itself, and I would have to have seen enough potential within the author's work to have more hope for the author. However, the play itself was not compelling enough for me to desire to read more by this author. Ultimately, I did enjoy my time watching //The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild: A Road Trip//. And although it had its drawbacks, I would have to say that, overall, its positive qualities outweighed the negative.