“Bad book”
Until May 4th
Round House Theater
4545 East and West Expressway
Bethesda, Maryland.
Tickets start at $43
roundhousetheatre.org
The library may seem unlikely to be a warm and humiliated place, but that is exactly where adults go when they are itching to fight books that minors are allowed to read.
Shalin Rothstein’s “Bad book” The two women, mother (actor Holly Twiford) and librarian (Kate Eastwood Norris), are quickly buried in arguing with several heavy influences.
Her mother is a popular conservative influencer on her mission. She is furious that the local library has crossed its boundaries, and she blames the librarian. The librarian is dedicated to young people who adhere to the “it takes the village” parenting methods and approach her reference desk.
There is a background. He appears to be a librarian who dressed young (tight jackets and documentary marten) to curse blue streaks and formed a friendship with teenage library regular Jeremy.
The details are a bit hazy, but the troubled Jeremy appears to have confided with the librarian about some personal issues. In return, she proposed a useful book, “Boob Juice.”
Naturally, based solely on the title, the book threw the mother into an angry attitude. After finding boob juice in her son’s bedroom, she made a beeline in the library. Not by chance, the mother has not read the recommended work and has no plans to do so.
Set in a suburb with the Law of the LAX gun, the story explores aspects of division and mediation. Mothers argue that there is not much to ban books as they keep them away from young people until they get parental approval.
“Bad Books” will take place in rounds. Built on a rotating stage, Meghan Raham set is simple, comfortable and serviceable, easily transforming from a library into a small corporate office, and later into a church meeting room. The overhead floats on a circular glass shelf filled with caches of prohibited books. Add flavor to a variety of places, such as a gentle book cart or a goldfish bowl.
His mother was not a popular conservative warrior with a frenzied horde of followers.
Her past includes writing a book that later filled her with guilt and regret. She calls that early, questionable literary achievements her bad book. And over the years she has been patient in finding and destroying all printed copies, but she has not been completely successful.
Norris plays three women, meaningfully occupying the character in the arc of Twyford’s mother’s character. In addition to the librarian, Norris is a manager, part of a widely performed comic relief, and the editor is a warm woman who reveals things about Jeremy, who his mother didn’t know about.
The production, which was smartly staged by Ryan Lillett, is part of the new Rolling World premiere of the national play network. The Rothstein script offers two powerful roles (deftly performed by famous actors Twyford and Norris), but its ending feels like it’s resolved too neatly.
In the past, Twyford and Norris have successfully joined Studio Theater’s David Auburn’s two modest “Summer, 1976” productions, as well as numerous DMV productions, including a story of long-standing and unlikely friendship between the two women they meet as young mothers during the summer of their sophomore year.
Although different, both the librarian and the mother share a powerful and ultimately hopeful relationship with the language.
There is a quote from Eb White’s classic “Charlotte’s Web” that pops up a few times with an active 80-minute play. The wise spider Charlotte says, “The right words can change the world.”
The post “Bad Books” first appeared in Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights and Gay News in a timely manner on censorship at local libraries.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
