Day 120: 7 March 2026

 Journal

The hubby and I went to see Two. It was directed by a friend and another friend was one of the two cast. It's set in a pub and looks at the story of the owners along with glimpses of some of the patrons stories. The acting was superb! 5/5! But the story was hard. Well written for sure! But hard. There was: abuse, both physical and emotional, death, hurt, manipulation and more. I cried at the end. 

But what impacted me perhaps more than the story itself was how the audience reacted. There was a group of people a few rows back from us who were talking throughout the show and that didn't positively impact it. But there were several parts during the play when things were set up to be funny -- a man scooting his barstool closer to compliment a woman, a woman talking about what she finds physically attractive, etc -- where the audience quickly learns there's something darker at play. But instead of treating it seriously, there was laughter. And I wondered to myself: What would happen if the whole theatre went silent at the gravity of the situation instead of laughing it off? What if when we find out the man has a girlfriend, his behaviour wasn't excused as funny or cute? When he proposes to her because she has a job and he doesn't and he wants her money, no one cheered when she said? What if instead of laughing because we know we should we were serious and stood up against manipulation and abuse? Because if that girl was your friend or your sister, would you want her marrying someone like that? Who is with her for what he can get and will cheat on her when he can? If the man who's wife belittles him until he breaks and then acts like he's making a scene was your friend or your brother, would you want him to stay in that relationship just because she welcomed him with open arms after causing him to break? 

I'm all for literature and theatre that makes you think. But you do need to think. 

And I'm hoping that the people laughing and cheering were the loud minority, but it troubled me.