I really enjoy ten-minute shows. I think it’s an impressive feat to write a well-rounded and engaging show, with developed characters, all in under ten pages. Full-length plays have 90+ minutes to do all this, sometimes with multiple acts. Yes, there are increasingly more characters and more complicated plot lines, but still. They have a lot of time to work things out. Ten minute plays have to communicate a lot of things in a very short amount of time, so when they actually make sense and are interesting to watch, I am impressed, to say the least.
My favorite show of these four was definitely The Roads That Lead Here. I think what I liked about this was the subtle use of exposition and how it was developed. Without them having to say anything, from the beginning I began to figure out what these boys were doing. There were small hints, like when the Xander and Marcus were discussing the need for Jason to be there because they need to share their things, or mentioning only seeing each other once a year. So once they back story was actually explained, it wasn’t as much of a surprise, which I think worked. Instead of being thrown off, the audience is affirmed in what they thought was true. And I liked the way the back-story was given to us: the father is questioning what they do, and thus as a way to affirm their lives, they explain it to us. I also enjoyed that there were a few surprises after the big expository moment. I was not expecting them to be so intensely dedicated to their project, i.e. all of them were still virgins when the oldest is almost 30. Also, the father blowing up their cars at the end of the show. I wasn’t entirely expecting it, yet I loved that, the idea that by living their “dream” they weren’t actually growing up, so the father killed their dream so they could go live their lives. Brilliant! But I also loved how ambiguous it was at the end; you didn’t exactly know where it would go after that, which is really interesting. So I guess if I was to summarize things I learned from this show I would say: use hints to begin developing exposition, have a big moment revealing back story, add a few surprises, insert dramatic yet ambiguous ending.
What I think is great is that for the most part, the other shows did all those things as well. In The Man Who Couldn’t Dance we understood immediately that Gail and Eric were more than just friends, but not to the extent that we later find out. The surprise? Eric being the one who is more upset about it. The ambiguous ending? The dance together and what it could mean when she turns out the light. In A Bowl of Soup we get hints that something is not quite right with Robbie and Eddie wants to help him, but the surprise is that Robbie’s lover just died. While the ending is less ambiguous, it is still very powerful with the last line “Put it in a bowl. I want to know we were here”. In That Midnight Rodeo we know she is going to a doctor’s for some reason and are slowly clued in as to why. The surprise? It’s for an abortion because Cindy is unwilling to give up her dreams. The ambiguous ending? Whether or not she will actually get it.
What I think stands out to me the most is the simple natures of these pieces and yet the complex ideas they raise. They are snapshots in the moment of someone’s life. I view them as a theatrical punch, like they are almost a bang of energy and drama and then they’re done. The shows are less about furthering the plot and more about showing us the back-story and then revealing something new or surprising. But I think the thing that is most important is the end. You need to leave the audience with some moment or line that they will remember, something with impact. The plays almost seem like a road to getting us there, which I think is really cool. It’s almost as if the climax of these plays is the end, which is kind of a cool idea.
Suffice it to say, I anticipate that I will enjoy writing these ten-minute shows :)
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