The Man in the Ring was an amazing production. I was blown away.
Sitting in the front row I honestly felt like I was there with Emile through his entire journey.
The entire show had me feeling very emotional and being so close to the actors I felt such a connection with the story. The transformation of Emile was so heartbreaking. One of the last scenes, was for me a very emotional and good way to conclude the show.
Benny's son meets up with Emile and Louis, and Emile thinks its Benny. He quickly apologizes and asks for forgiveness, pleading letting 'Benny' know he never meant to hurt him. After a while Benny's son says he has no hard feelings, and Emile feels so happy. He wants to tell 'Benny' about his life, but he cannot remember much else, without the help of Louis. To me shows how much Benny's death impacted Emile's life, that even though his memory was shot, he was forever haunted by killing Benny.
This scene along with so many others made this a well produced show. This play covers so many big ' hard to talk about' topics but digs deep and shoves it in your face. It addresses sexuality, race and class divisions, and addresses each individually but demonstrate how these big life obstacles can unify and cause lots of distress.
I can go on for pages about this production, I would see it again!
Very thankful for the opportunity to have seen this play.
I also thought that his story addressed a crazy amount of binaries. He had so much to deal with as a black gay athlete and I think he dealt with all his problems in a very positive an optimistic way, at least until he suffered brain damage.
ReplyDeleteI think that Benny was the ghost that was tearing him apart. It wasn't being beaten almost to death or being gay. I think he was able to deal with that stuff even as he got older but it was the death of Benny that was really taking his mind away.
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