Utility by Emily Schwend

This is a play about a mom who’s really struggling to stay afloat, and to decide whether or not her cheating husband is worth sticking with.

Lessons:
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1. Character building through minor, everyday problems: This woman was constantly dealing with small problems, but the play did a very good job of showing us how those problems accumulate (and have probably been accumulating) over just the course of a few days. The play did a very effective job of showing  little moments of pain — like when we learn that the daughter (whose birthday it is) complained about her bike. The mom never scolds her daughter, and later she tells her deadbeat husband that the daughter loves the bike. We see her internalize all these little bruises, and it makes for a very effective character-building technique.

2. Feelings: Characters in this play are constantly talking about whether or not other characters like them (or whether they like other characters). It’s satisfying to watch, just from a gossipy perspective, but it’s also a demonstration that everyone in this world is fundamentally misunderstanding everyone else pretty constantly. It’s a little bit of what’s so challenging to all the characters... None of them know how to express themselves, and they’re metaphorically in the dark for the whole play. That’s why the moment of illumination at the end feels so magical.

3. Offscreen characters: I’ve noticed the effectiveness in a few plays of characters existing only abstractly, and in this play it’s particularly effective — Michelle, the kids, and even the utility company employee are all only talked about and never seen, but they have a very big impact on the play. Aside from the fact that this is theater and actors are a limited resource, I think it’s an effective tactic because sometimes you don’t need to craft a whole other character to make him or her impactful on your main cast. Michelle is only as important as her niggling text messages and the presence of her name in conversations. We don’t need to see a scene where she and Chris cheat together, because that’s not the point. Part of this seems to be in the power of what these characters represent. Michelle's exact characteristics don't matter: she is a threat, and all she needs for that is a name (not even).