Frank,
Awesome on the 5 W's. However, I've been taking the road that all the
characters are entirely Brecht-ian, and not at all method. None of
them seem to me to be more than skin-deep. They're supposed to incite
the knee-jerk reaction, to present the audience with a series of
stimuli and to make the audience react. Barker is the embodiment of
social structure, "posh", of social normalcies, and good, capitalist
thought. He is essentially the meaning behind "Politically Correct".
Donna is everything a good housewife should be, but there's a twist
with her. She also embodies female empowerment, especially before the
woman's movement. She is the emotional side to the couple, she is his
lesser but greater half. Frank is simply an object. I like the idea of
Frank only being a manikin because it puts further into light the
situation between social qualms and simple humanity. If Frank is not
even human, it makes the audience look into themselves to determine
what makes humanity, what makes any action "acceptable", and who
decides?
I love the idea of Frank. He is simply one big question. He answers
simply, like a child, but the questions he asks are more than
subtexted. "would you like a summer sausage?" becomes: how comfortable
with yourself are you? are you intimidated by another man because he
is able to look at himself and let others look at him? are you
unhappy? what are your emotions? are you repulsed by the thought of a
masculine body? are you thinking about how others perceive you? but
most importantly, are you afraid of this body because it is human, and
alive, and willing to be exposed and you are none of these?
and that last question is not for Barker, it is for the audience. The
audience never fully sees Frank, so they never really get the
opportunity to judge themselves against Barker's or Donna's reactions.
It makes me wonder what a person would do after seeing this play.
BBB,
-Sayrah