The Waverly Gallery - Lessons Learned from the Play

Here we go! Lessons learned on next page... Started writing DON'T LOOK DOWN today. These lessons are all coming in handy. (Not exclusively from this play, but from the site and all our most recent reading on the whole.)

Written by Kenneth Lonergan

First, I think an important thing I learned from this script was that it just very organically allowed the plot to unfold based on the built-in structure of Gladys's disease. Her decline, and its effects on her family, is an obvious way to escalate the tension and stakes and Lonergan just allows that to play out so naturally. 
Also, the subplot of Don coming to New York and waiting for something big to happen is a great commentary on/ analogue how all of these people are kind of waiting for Gladys to get better, and then basically for her to die. It's this kind of analogue for what's happening to them, this idea that he arrives at a place in life with expectations, but then the reality is much crueller than what he had anticipated. It's the same thing with Gladys, her family is not really ready, not really equipped to deal with the challenges facing them. It's sort of like, a loss of innocence on all fronts. Also it's an interesting little thread that Don, the outsider, keeps making the excuse that Gladys's hearing aid just isn't right. Obviously, that's not the case, but he just wants her to be okay. He works so hard on his pictures, getting all the details exactly as they were -- he really harps on that. Because Don wants things to be idealized, and he wants to preserve the memories. Having a character like him is really important to sort of illustrate a different side of things from the family's POV.
Also, there's the sort of runner of Daniel's crappy girlfriend, who seemingly refuses to love him in the way he loves her. I spent some time trying to think about why that was in here, why it mattered that he has this woman in the periphery of the story. I think what I ultimately came around to is that she is part of the instability in his life, part of the chaos and the uncertainty and the lack of control. This mysterious girlfriend is someone who he is caring for, and he expects her to change, but ultimately she doesn't. That's also an analogue for Gladys's disease. It's like... they all keep hoping something will change or old Gladys will return, they keep talking to her like it's just a matter of logic or reason, but she's not reasonable. That's exactly how we are led to believe Daniel's relationship is. Also, I think it all ties in with the theme of the play, that last beautiful sentiment, which is that people struggle but don't always prevail, but that it's still worthwhile to love people, and that it must be a really special thing to be alive. 
Finally, we wanted to talk about stories and how people bring them up. In this script, there's a moment at Don's gallery where Don is trying to talk about himself, but instead of engaging on this, Daniel tells a story about a time when he broke his wrist falling off the awning outside the gallery. He just starts talking about it. I think in this case, it's especially purposeful because of how much Gladys talks, and how she tells the same stories and says the same things. So its abruptness is almost part of the point, of how sometimes, even without Alzheimer's, people just fail to connect. Sometimes I think the brilliance in the way these stories are brought up is that the playwright has traced an invisible train of thought in the character, a line that has brought them to this story and its particular relevance, because that's how it works in real life. No need to display the scaffolding.