End Days: A Post-Modern Production

Note: This wasn't a planned part of the course but I happened to see this play and it is unbelievably post-modern so seems relevant.

WSU's theater department recently put on a performance of Deborah Laufer's play "End Days." The play takes place one year after September 11th, featuring a family which has been torn apart by the trauma of the attacks. The family used to live in New York where the dad worked in the Twin Towers, and was the only survivor of the attack. Following this, the dad is depressed to the point of disability, the formerly atheist Jew mother finds Jesus, and the daughter is a detached goth who has been emotionally tortured by her parents. Essentially, the family is struggling to find meaning in a world which has been torn apart by violent trauma which the mother has done by believing that the rapture is coming on Wednesday.

One of the most interesting aspects of this play were the aesthetics of the set design. The set was inexplicably raised at an angle (it looked quite unsafe) and is made up of circular platforms. Behind the circular platforms are mechanical glass platforms which are normally obscured from the audience but which can be turned to expose the scene to the audience. The play used no curtain and made any changes of scene with the mechanical platforms. It is difficult to determine how specific the set instructions for the play were, but the aesthetics have a sort of amazing feel being as the family's entire life is off balance and they literally do not have a stable floor beneath their feet. This set design deconstructs traditional notions of set design by not attempting to suspend the audience's disbelief; that is to say, the set makes no attempt at appearing realistic and instead amuses the audience by looking like a piece of installation art.

The family's search for meaning in their literally slanted home mirrors the nation's quest to find meaning in the face of extraordinary violence. By putting the audience in the position of a family that personally experienced the attacks the play is able to give the audience an insight into trauma. Americans seem unable or unwilling to understand the effects that large scale violence can have on a society- at least on another society. What was not brought up in mainstream dialogue surrounding the attacks was the idea that people in country's under attack go through this all the time. It is easy to criticize a nation's people for an inability to put a society back together, but it is difficult to know what the dad in "End Days" would have done if he was forced to go back to work prematurely.

As the family waits for the rapture they are forced to examine their beliefs. No one believes the mother, but she is so persistent that they stay with her just to calm her down. The nerdy and strange neighbor is also waiting for them, and has introduced the daughter to the work of Stephen Hawking. As the daughter is excited by the possibility of fully explaining the nature of the universe, the mother is trying to force repentance out of her family. The dad meanwhile, is a secular Jew who is being forced to accept not only religion but a different one from his own.

"End Days" has a very straightforward message despite the enormous issues being faced by the characters. While waiting for the rapture the family ultimately realizes that they enjoyed spending the whole day together and that meaning can be derived from family and personal relationship and that everything does not have to be explained. The father says directly that he is someone who needs concrete facts in front of him and that he is not that worried with the unknown. The mother struggles the most when coming to grips with the fact that she is a false prophet, but her relationship with her husband improves through the experience and he is willing to work to make her life more fulfilling in the real world so she does not have to resort to conversations with apparitions of Jesus.

This play is very successful at questioning traditional notions of family, religion, and coping with trauma. Instead of telling viewers how to live, it encourages them to live and simply try to enjoy it. This is much different from other artistic movements, which tend to espouse specific and tangible beliefs. The family learns something about how to live, but they are left with no new knowledge about nature of life and the universe.