Hello my beautiful readers and welcome to the follow up to my #PUPPETGATE post. If you haven’t read it, please spend some time to do so. If however you already have or you’re familiar with the news of it, then this post will explain some of my vague points more clearly.
If you want to see the original tweet thread, then click here
Lets start with writing quality. It’s bad. So very bad. A lot of times, the writer simply forgets to add stage directions or tone of voice, instead relying on the most basic of directions so at least this play contains some level of acting. While this wouldn’t normally be such of a problem, it has far reaching effects on the play as a whole.
I’ll skip over the foreward and get right into the meat of the issue. Throughout the play it becomes obvious that the adults are talking about Laurence instead of to him. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, but the playwright often fails to include stage directions for Laurence, meaning that the abuse of the parents is being said while Laurence is in the room. Laurence is also able to understand ‘complex’ English when we’re shown he understands a 20-minute timer going off means he can have pizza. This leads to the shocking conclusion: Laurence understands every bit of abuse the parents throw his way. The fact they don’t understand this is even more disturbing.
Before I go any further, I just want to mention that I read this article on Friday. It has taken me until Sunday to come to terms with what I was reading. Here’s why:
The opening line of dialogue is spoken by the care-taker Gary. He says, and I quote: “Down. Laurence. Get Down.” I hope I don’t have to point out that Laurence is being treated like a pet and not like a human child., all because the characters think he can’t understand English. Even if Laurence couldn’t understand grammatical sentences, it’s no excuse to treat him like a dog. There are plenty of ways you can communicate with someone who doesn’t understand complex grammatical structures without sounding like a dictator. As mentioned before, there is no indication of how the actor should say this. In my opinion, while the dialogue isn’t perfect, I’d at least excuse it if the character was being loving or gentle. Since there is no tone of voice, it makes him come across as some Stalin-ist robot.
While we’re on the subject of dialogue, the parents often say things like “Mummy is spoiling you, yes she is. Is Mummy on the wine again? Yes she is, yes she is.” Laurence is 11. This is not how you talk to an 11 year old, autistic or not. My girlfriend pointed out that when she was in college learning about how parents use language, this simple repetition and sentence structure is used for 1 year olds, and even then it still sound condescending. And this isn’t a one-off. All three adults in the play use this style of speech whenever they talk to Laurence. It’s really frustrating to me as an autisitic person to see adults act this way. I’ll be saving non-Laurence related issues until the end of the post, but trust me, all the adults are scum.
Martin, who is Laurence’s dad (I think? It’s kind of vague) frequently gets Laurence into a lockhold. A number of issues here. First, physical violence and discipline should never be used on a child, no matter how bad their behaviour is. Secondly, Martin himself recognises it’s child abuse, but rationalises it as “the only kind that stops him biting you”. Again, even if your child is biting you, that’s not an excuse to pin them. Thirdly, this kind of hold is extremely dangerous. 2 months before this play debuted, Max Benson, a 13-year old boy from America, died after being restrained face down by the staff at his school. The play never brings this up, nor do any of the characters outright disagree with this ‘punishment’. THESE CHARACTERS ARE VILE!
Martin boils my blood so much he needs a dedicated paragraph to himself, so that will be coming much later. In the mean time, lets get back to Laurence. We open the play and he wants pizza. He’s already had some so Gary refuses. When Martin enters, Laurence leads him to the fridge. Martin also refuses. When Tamora gets in, she gives him half a pizza and sets a timer for 20 minutes so he can have the other half. They also deny him cake. Why do they not feed this child? He’s clearly hungry and even if the characters don’t want him just eating junk food, do they not have anything else in the house? Gary fed him watermelon earlier, so it’s not like they live entierly on junk food. But still, why not just let him eat? There’s nothing wrong with giving your child a little more food if you monitor it properly.
Another thing that bothers me is the parents often saying Laurence chooses not to speak. They clearly don’t understand his form of autism. Laurence doesn’t choose not to speak, he doesn’t know how. His brain is wired in such a way that he’s able to understand language, but can’t reciprocate verbally. The whole idea that ‘he chooses not to’ paints Laurence as a lazy child, instead of addressing the specific problems he faces in life. I shouldn’t have to point out how damaging this could be to parents of non-verbal children.
Right, now onto some of the more vile things. Bare in mind that all of these are being said IN FRONT OF LAURENCE.
Lets start with arguably the more innocent character in all of this, Tamora. Although, that’s not really something to be proud of – she’s still a disgusting person. She talks about trying to “cure” Laurence with toxoplasmosis. For those who don’t know, toxoplasmosis involves injecting someone with a germ that can cause fever-like symptoms. It’s also commonly found in cat shit. Apart from being a completely ridiculous and illogical cure, does she not realise autism is genetic? It can’t be cured, it can only be mamnaged. Autistic people will never be ‘cured’, and in all honesty, we don’t want to be. There’s nothing wrong with us. It’s like trying to cure someone with Down’s Syndrome. There isn’t a cure, because there doesn’t need to be. This promotion of ‘curing autism’ is really damaging.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, she also sexually harasses Gary. She uses her position of power to force him to kiss her. I kid you not, she honestly says “I’m your employer. Kiss me.” Flip the tables, and I’m sure the problem with this would cause outrage. I’m not saying people overlook this behaviour because she’s a woman. I know that anyone with half a brain would see that this is an abuse of power and sexual assault, no matter the gender. It doesn’t seemed to have bought up in conversations much about this play from those who support it.
She’s also worried about her reputation as a mother. This woman is sending her child 200 miles away, and her primary concern is how she’ll look to other people?
She verbally abuses Laurence after finding feces on her pillow (I’ll explain later). She says – to his face – “You little bloody monster. I won’t miss this.” Why? Why does she feel the need to attack her son like this? Again, Laurence understands English, so he understands his mother is angry at him, which is even worse when he’s not at fault. If this was an allistic adult talking to an allistic child, Child Services would be called immediately.
Speaking of CS, Gary needs to grow a sense of responsibility. Not only is Gary aware of the verbal abuse, he has a conversation with Martin about using restraints on Laurence. He knows this restraint is bruising Laurence, and that it isn’t a one off- Martn talks about how he’s upset they won’t be able to restrain Laurence at the institution. Gary, as a hired care-worker, should immediately be reporting these people for multiple accounts of abuse. But why doesn’t he? “I know there’s procedure, I know. But my loyalty is to you guys and I’d never have dropped you in it.” Gary is much more concerned about his friendship with these vile humans than ACTUALLY DOING HIS JOB! Gary also says possibly the worst thing in this play. He proposes his theory that people with special needs are aimals reincarnated into humans. Wrongly. He believes that Laurence, the child he is being payed to look after, was an animal in a previous life. This explains why he talks to him like a dog: he thinks he is one. He even says so himself when he compares Laurence to a puppy. And not in a loving, joking way. He honestly thinks Laurence is a dog in a human body. When a carer says something so psychologically damaging, you know you’ve fucked up.
Now to the devil incarnate: Martin. Martin is singlehandedly the worst villain in all of fiction. He confesses early in the play that he’s the one deficating on Tamora’s pillows and letting Laurence get the blame for it. When Tamora confronts him, the stage direction is ‘Martin can barely contain his grin.’ This man is happy his son is being blamed and verbally attacked for something he knows full well he did not do. He doesn’t step in at all, doesn’t correct Tamora, he just lets Laurence take the full brunt of the abuse. That, in itself, would be grounds to hate this man. But it gets so much worse.
At the start, Laurence is watching Finding Nemo on an iPad. Martin comes in and in front of his child starts talking about Disney porn. This would be extremely innapropriate at any time outside a close friend group, but to do it in front of his son?
Another form of his torture comes when he reveals that not only does he blame the shit on Tamora’s pillows on Laurence, but he also pissed on Laurence’s books, in his iPad battery port and his makeup table. He also lets Laurence get the blame for this later.
I’m going to quickly rattle off everything else he does.
He compares Tamora to a parasite because she has been unable to sell her invention to an investor, but still gets grants. He restrains Laurence with a cushion. He compares Laurence to the Incredible Hulk because he has meltdowns. He accuses his wife of being an alcoholic when he later drinks beer and gets high. He recognises that the institution they are sending Laurence to follows regulations he doesn’t (such as BEATING CHILDREN). He pressures Gary to drink, knowing he’s responsible for Laurence. He, nor Tamora, know what stimming is, so they get angry at Laurence for mushing food into the carpet. He makes a joke about Laurence and E colours. Apparently Martin does want Laurence, but has no reservations about saying his child is “fucked, chemically lobotmized” in front of Laurence. He talks about herpes in front of Laurence, as well as fellating priests. When Gary offers his theory, Martin jokes about quadriplegics being slugs. He forces Tamora’s invention on Laurence, not understanding that his son might not like physical touch. Martin says he loves Laurence as he is. Can you see why I hate this man? He also asks if its possible to love someone but wonder what it would be like if they were someone else. How does this make sense? If you love someone, you love them for who they are, not what you want them to be.
Wrapping this post up to an end, I want to point out one major thing. No one, and I mean no one, in this play acknowledges the fact that Laurence can understand what they are saying, despite the fact Tamora tells Martin not to talk about herpes in front of him. Laurence has several meltdowns throughout the play, and no one addresses him afterwards. In fact, no one talks to Laurence unless they are telling him to do something. It never occurs to these characters that he has feelings, or that anything they say to/about him is upsetting the slightest.
FUCK. THIS. PLAY
Jack Walker 