The Pro Golfer and the Five-Year-Old: Post for 11/4

I enjoy plays. I like dialogue between the characters. There are a few hints to where something is happening, what it looks like, and what the characters look like. Other than that, while reading a play, it is all left up to the imagination. When you go to see a play that you have read, sometimes you end up a little disappointed in what you see, though. Oh, well.

Anyway, I started reading The Boys Next Door by Tom Griffin. I thought it was entertaining and, at times, very comical. Four of the main characters all live together in the same apartment. Oh, and they are mentally handicapped. Sometimes I would forget they were, even though it is their disabilities that are the fuel for the entire story. You get caught up in the jokes and their strange behavior and sometimes it slips your mind that the reason it all happens is because of their handicap. Strangely enough, the one that seems the most together (so far) is Barry, the schizophrenic. He thinks he is a prof golf player. No harm done right? I guess that's not the case, because their social worker, Jack, says that Barry is a "grade A schizophrenic" and shouldn't even be in the home with them because he has been in so many institutions. Arnold is a talker and a worrier. Norman likes his sweets and his keys. Lucien has the mind of a five-year-old and the government apparently thinks he can be "fully integrated into the community" and so the Senate is interviewing him. I wouldn't think so. Would you force a five-year-old to be on their own? No! Then why force a man who is mentally five and goes around the apartment singing the ABCs?

You know, I don't really like summarizing all of this stuff. It is kind of boring and a bit of a cheat blog. But, I really don't know what to talk about. I'm not sure what Professor Corrigan wanted us to get out of this play. Or at least out of the first act. Are we supposed to feel bad for those with disabilities? I, too, think it is terrible how some people pick on them, like Arnold in the supermarket. And I have a cousin with a disability they can't quite diagnose, but resembles autism. I see her sometimes, she is almost 12 years old physically. I see speaking incoherent sentences and it makes me sad. She doesn't even notice she doesn't make sense to most people. But she seems happy. Does that count? But, that couldn't have been the whole point of reading. Why this play? This topic? Never mind that it is presented comically. You can't ignore what the play is really focused on.