Quiara Alegria Hudes creates different worlds in Water By The Spoonful. There is the real, physical world in which the characters live and the online world, where the characters frequently interact. In certain points in the play, we see these two worlds collide with one another.
The most remarkable example of these worlds coming together in my opinion is in scene seven. In this scene, we see Odessa, AKA "Haikumom" interacting with other characters in the real world for this first time. Online, she is a saint of sorts: all the addicts look to her as a solid rock on which to rely and for hope that the addiction can be overcome. In real life though, she curses quite often, contradicting the way she censors everyone else on the forum. We also learn that she abandoned her two daughters when they were ill, resulting in the death of one of them.
I feel that this scene reflects back to Yaz's lesson on dissonance. Odessa in reality is completely off key from the way she is on the internet. This scene completely throws the audience off from what they had been led to believe about "Haikumom" so far and changes the pace of the play.
I like this choice of scene a lot because this is the moment in the play when I felt like my eyes were opened to the truth of Odessa's character. The hypocrisy is written into her character, which gave me a more visceral understanding of Elliot's relationship with her, or lack thereof.
ReplyDeleteI picked this scene too! I think it is really interesting how she is such a different person online. I would like to see this performed just to see an actresses take on the character. Before this scene everyone saw her as a wonderful caring mom.
ReplyDeleteA very good choice, indeed. This scene exemplifies very nicely the merging of different realities. It also does a lot to the perception of Odessa.
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