Aristotelian Tragedy for the Boomer Generation

Linda Alper

Western theater has used stories of death and dying to bring communities together since its Athenian origins. A.R.T. continues that tradition in its current production of Quality of Life.

Jane Anderson's drama tells the story of two sides of one family - one, conservative Christians from Ohio; the other, liberal Californians - both dealing with death. In framing our 21st century political polarization in classic Aristotelian terms, Anderson and A.R.T.'s message is clear - however divided we may feel, we all have death and suffering in common.

Jeannette (Linda Alper) and Neil (Michael Mendelson) have recently survived a devastating California wild-fire. Tim Stapleton's realist set depicts the front of their yurt, surrounded by burnt snags decorated with their fire-destroyed possessions. They are making a temporary life surrounded by an ostentatious display of death to cope with Neil's late-stage terminal cancer. Cousins Dinah (Susannah Mars) and Bill (Michael Fisher-Welsh) come to visit. They have recently experienced a loss of their own - their only daughter was savagely killed in an act of random violence.

Variations of the phrase "I understand" litter the first act. Of course, nobody really does. Neil is the only one whose mortality is really imminent. Bill can't understand, or doesn't want to understand, Neil's marijuana use. Jeanette and Neil don't understand Dinah and Bill's faith in Christ, and it's not clear if Dinah and Bill really understand their faith either. If God exists, why would he take their daughter in such a hellish way? Dinah relates the tales of Abraham and Isaac and of Christ's crucifixion, and admits, "I love the Son, but I cannot stand the Father." Their understanding evaporates with the big reveal at the end of the first act, and their suffering threatens to tear their already strained family apart in the second.

The Quality of Life is a Learish attempt at creating a communal bond out of our shared mortality and propensity to pain. The two sides of this family are representatives of the left and right wing of the polarity that has defined the American political climate of the first decade of the 21st century. Jeannette and Neil represent American liberals, and Dinah and Bill American conservatives. But where they, like our nation, are divided in politics, they are united in suffering and death. An exercise in Aristotelian catharsis, Quality is meant to reinforce some responses to suffering and death while purging us of others. Struggling with Biblical morality and death with dignity are permissible, but suicide born of grief is not.

Death isn't the only thing that unites this family, though. Both American conservatism and liberalism are represented solely by upper-middle class white Boomers. Just as Athenian tragedy was meant to reinforce the supremacy of the power-holding class, Anderson's America is middle-class, middle-aged and white. Not coincidentally, so is A.R.T.'s audience at this play. The Quality of Life is as much a medieval morality play as it is an Aristotelian tragedy. If the Boomer generation doesn't accept death and a (modified) Christian ban on suicide, how will they retain power?