The Birthday Party

What did I take when I read this? I feel so high. The story takes places in a run down boardinghouse. Meg, the owner, calls out to her husband Petey to come get his breakfast - a bowl of cornflakes, and then asks, “are they nice?” as though she had slaved over making them all morning long.  She's annoying throughout and doesn't let the poor man enjoy his measly breakfast in peace, but I guess that's her way of making small talk in a house/marriage where nothing much goes on. She then yells for the one and only lodger of the boarding house, Stanley, to come down. I mean this guy is lodger, and she treats him like her son by actually going up and waking him and threatening not to make him breakfast if he oversleeps. Because, you know, you must have your cornflakes now! Can't let those go cold. Meg and Petey have a discussion before Stanley comes down - two men are stopping by to take lodging at the boarding house. Stanley comes down, and in so many words, we learn that he doesn't go out much, if at all. We know he played the piano until the venue he played at closed down and that's pretty much it. Meg shares with Stanley the bit of news that two men will be staying over. When the men stop over, Meg runs her mouth at them and tells them that it's Stan's birthday. Although these lodgers do not know Stanley at all, Goldberg and McCann offer to throw a party for him. When Meg leaves the the room and they meet for the first time, the men start berating Stanley. At first it makes sense. It seems as though they do know him after all and came to save Stanley from his isolated and miserable existence. They tell him he's pretty much a waste of space, but then they start ranting and spitting out nonsensical things at Stan too, and this is where it starts to get trippy because nothing makes sense after this. Petey is out working or something and it's just the three lodgers, Meg, and her neighbor friend, Lulu, who was kind enough to pick up the gift that Meg presented Stanley earlier (a small child's drum) at Stan's party. Everyone is talking to each other except to Stan. Stan is completely ignored. When it is suggested that they play a party game, the lodgers blindfold Stanley and pretty much torture the guy and make him step on his gift. To add insult to injury, McCann breaks Stan's glasses for no reason at all. Meg doesn't remember much of what took place the night before and Lulu, who hooked up with Goldberg the night before, feels used and disgusted at the things Goldberg did to her. Whatever those things may have been, Lulu sees that there is a dark side to the man and she splits on the double. Meanwhile, Stanley is upstairs under McCann's watch, and when he comes down, Stan is a total mute. The two men try to take Stan away and Petey tries to stop them as he senses that they are the reason why Stan seems so ill. They continue to walk off with Stan when Meg comes down, wonders what happened to Stan, and then continues to make Petey his sad breakfast. And that's it - no one talks about who the two men were or where Stanley is off to against his will. Nothing. It's hard to rate this one. I kind of liked it, and I kind of didn't, and I can't explain why. If you enjoyed [b:The Trial 17690 The Trial Franz Kafka http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320399438s/17690.jpg 2965832], you'll like this play. It has the same type of fragmented dream like quality to it.