Fringe – The Long Way Home

This is not a review.  This is an out-pouring written in my journal after seeing The Long Way Home.  It is a raw mix of thoughts and feelings penned while sitting outside of  Coffee Emporium  after the play ended. 

If you want a review from the experts, go to the Cincy Fringe Blog and The Conveyor.  I chose The Long Way Home because it was written by Roger Collins who is a member of Ink Tank Writers’ Salon.  I’ve been fortunate enough to hear some of Roger’s writing in our meetings and can attest he is an exceptional writer. 

The Long Way Home is about a veteran, recently jobless and homeless, who ventures back to the home he owned before losing his job and wife.  Along the journey he meets a cast of characters that assist him in defining his current situation and experiences flashbacks – in the military and with his wife – both fights in different types of wars.  The characters give him the words and paint to construct a portrait of where he now stands in society.  The ending is a confrontation with the current owner of his home and his choice of whether or not to use the gun concealed in his possession.  Because the show is still running I will not give away the ending here.

The best fitting word to describe my thought(s) is “absurd”.  It is absurd to think in black and white as Regent (main character) does because as the jazz musician put so nicely “There are shades of gray”.  But can one think in shades of gray when within the foggy grips of mental illness? 

Regent can’t be called insane – his thoughts are too coherent.  But he is not mentally healthy – a person who is mentally healthy works to procure for themselves the necessary means of survival; food, water, roof over head, etc.  Regent chooses not to either through his perception that he cannot (“I made too little for unemployment”) or will not through his refusal to label himself with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and possibly receive assistance via the Veterans Affairs.

The labels bandied about in the play are also absurd – ‘disenfranchised’, ‘the edge of society’, ‘PTSD’.  Why do we require ourselves and others to label?  And what happens when society says we are one thing but we don’t view ourselves as that thing? 

Regent refuses to acknowledge the outreach worker’s label of ‘disenfranchised’.  There is elitism in disenfranchisement (thanks to Roy Jones) - Regent rejects this elitist viewpoint while at the same time being unable to see anything other than ”black and white”.  He seemed to be afraid of the gray.  Another absurdity.

God, or the concept of God, offers very little long term solution other than possibly a clean pair of socks and something to eat at the church.  It’s wonderful to not feel alone because God is with you but you still cannot take a shower.  This is absurd.

It is absurd that Regent would argue music purity with a jazz musician, emphatically pleading that classical and jazz should not mix.  Equally crazy is reciting a broken parable to a man stealing beans in a convenience store while yielding a concealed handgun.  So also is the conversation with another homeless vet in a park who wisely advises him to visit the VA.  What!?

Also absurd: thinking and writing of homeless vets using a notebook and a pen simply because I like the feel of them in my hand while sitting on a chair in the sun sipping a $4.50 Chai Latte.

What is not absurd is Regent’s ability to laugh, ponder the purity of music, struggle with identity, find himself in a parable, and ultimately choose his own fate.  It would appear Roger Collins found the humanity in the absurd. 

“When you look through the years you see what you could’ve been, What you might’ve been, if you’d had more time.  So when the day comes to settle down, who’s to blame if you’re not around?  Take the long way home.”  –>Supertramp

The play continues at Media Bridges on Wednesday, June 9 at 9:00 PM and Friday, June 11 at 7:00 PM.