You read me correctly. Shorthand, but on a theater board, about plays' characters, craft-specific.
The addict-as-a-character in an addiction-generated story -- the topic here -- driven by the disease in the dramaturgy, self-presents as inherently narcissistic. Addiction is a destructive disease; loved ones and relationships, career, self-care, all ebb and fall away to serve the narrow, insidiously selfish disease. Of course the people underneath the addiction are human, and potentially (or proven) loving and lovable as anyone else. But we're talking about dramatizing the disease's grip: when it's operative as story-determining, other goals tend to disappear. That can create a narrow set of behaviors in a story, unless the story's canvas is a larger one. This piece, by its very title, makes it a story of the addict-as-protagonist. And my post responded to the initial one about the resulting narrow focus.
The original post explicates the problems with a play in which the reveal of other aspects of the character are possibly too late for the audience to fully invest (my words). I opine that such is the dilemma in stories in which the addict's acting out is the foreground story. It's being forced to watch denial and self-justification. I don't find the behavior compelling anymore.
This is not about moral judgments; it's about the challenges of dramatizing a disease that doesn't invite audience patience and investment. I stand by that. |
