Compare two things
I answer this writing prompt by talking about Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams and Mad Men. How'd I do?
I love going to the theater with my uncle because we have adventures. We once went to a musical performance at a French école in Los Angeles. French speakers filled the auditorium. A Spanish-speaking couple sat behind us. The musicians performed jokes in pantomime and Romanian, and after the show, we dissected it all over sushi.
I love when things like this happen—how art gets wrapped up in a moment that brings real life into relief. That’s why I want to talk about the production of The Glass Menagerie I saw this year (actually somewhere in the 2000s). When I heard it was “the best production ever,” my uncle and I made plans to see it. Like many people, I’d read the play in high school, but it didn’t impress me. Since then, I’d developed an appreciation for Williams’ work so I looked forward to seeing the play.
During intermission, I wondered to my uncle whether The Glass Menagerie would last like Shakespeare. I argued that because Shakespearean plays aren’t tethered to their time period, they’re more universal. As evidenced in a Los Angeles Times article, the British-based King Lear can be retailored into an entirely Afghani production. But could you do that with Williams? His plays are very specific to their time and place, so would The Glass Menagerie make any sense if productions weren’t always based in the values, society and culture of the 1930s American South? I also wondered if The Glass Menagerie was only meaningful to modern audiences because it was written about the 1930s. After all, what is Elizabethan England to us today? Does it matter anymore? However, the 1930s is the time period of our immediate ancestors. Whether living or dead, they come from it, and their memories still swim prominently in our collective unconscious.
Before we could discuss further, intermission ended. But when “Tom” told “Laura” to blow out her candles, I realized I was crying. The lights went up, and over the applause, my uncle and I said to each other, “Why would you change any of that?” In the end, time and place, while important to plot and characterization, weren’t relevant at all. What hits is the family drama—Tom, Amanda and Laura—and that will always be timeless.
I think it also comes down to what makes television shows like Mad Men great. Sure, the show is very specifically tied to its time and place. Would it be as colorful if it weren’t set in a 1960s ad agency? There’s smoking, misogyny and nods to historical events, but what makes the show is the family drama. Every season so far has ended with a portrait of the Draper family, and that’s what brings people back.
And how is Mad Men personally meaningful to me? It brings my family together. We watch it together. We have hour-long conversations over the phone about it. We are equally disheartened and hopeful for Don, and it’s things like this that I happen to love about art.
By Sarah Dzida
Author’s Note: Sometime in the late 2000s, I applied to grad school for creative writing, and this was one of the prompts.