Brother Sister Plays

The Brother Sister play was an astounding play that really exemplified the psychological turmoil Oya, the main character, struggles with and eventually comes to an understanding that allows her to be able to somehow overcome her battles. I feel like many of the best plays are the plays that allows the audience to connect and empathize with the characters in a clean and seamless way. This play most definitely does that. 

Some of the worries and stresses that Oya experiences are dealing with her mother being extremely ill, colleges trying to recruit her for track, and the struggles of accepting her sexuality. These are issues that most young adults today have dealt with or will have to deal with at some point. An ill loved one is always hard on anyone at any age. The stresses of moving onto college is always a maddening time for any teenager. Especially with Oya's mother being sick, it must be difficult for her to leave her mother behind. I can relate with this because recently my mom is going through a chaotic divorce, and although she isn't physically sick, it's still taxing on the soul, and it is hard for me to be away at college instead of being there for her for support. 

Oya's struggle with her sexuality shows how confusing that realm is for young adults and it always has been. I took a Human Sexuality class this year, and that class really opened my eyes about how society looks at sexuality education is looked as taboo which in turn causes such turbulence for many teenagers. This play highlighted the relevance among young adults dealing their sexuality. Being a teenager and going through the pandemonium of becoming a young adult is already stressful enough, but coming to an understanding with one's sexuality is probably the least talked about. That should be something we should rethink as a society. 

Finally, this play did an awesome job at presenting emphasis on characters doing by saying "____ entered" or "_____ laughed" etc. right before the character would do so. I think they did this to bring importance to the actions. Since this play revolved around a young adult's psychological stresses, focusing on a person's behavior through their actions is a popular method used by a majority of behavioral therapists and psychologists to understand the mental patterns of their clients. So the characters announcing their actions before doing so drew the audience closer to the characters. This was an intriguing thing they did in my opinion. 

One question I would have for the writer is "what was your inspiration to writing this play and the style of writing this play?" I'm curious to know how the story was inspired and whether or not it was personal. Usually the best stories are personal. I'm also curious to know if the style of having the characters narrate their actions before doing so had to do with my theory.