Frotting Reality and Going Mad
Frotting Reality by Alex Evans is a play with three different narratives: Elsa who is ignoring reality, Adam who won’t accept reality, and Daron who gives up on reality.
'Frotting' means 'to rub up against'.
I directed Elsa's narrative as part of an ensemble of plays called Another Leap at The Traverse Theatre in 2011. Unfortunately I do not have any photos or footage of the completed play and only my analysis and inspiration behind it.
My staged version featured a group of seven actors with Mickey Mouse ears on their heads and a Mickey Mouse doll attached to their feet and wrists. They sat in a cluster and fed their doll cheese. Elsa started the play with a monologue then clambered through the mice singing a song to herself. Her lines were spoken for her by Emm her imaginary friend who she comes face to face with once through the huddle of mice. For the video version of this scene click here.
ADAM
Adam and Charlotte meet in a club...Adam is easy going and impetuous and takes Charlotte to see the sunrise, something she has never done.
"Take whatever reality happens to be, and rub up against it like there’s no tomorrow (Evans, 1)
Adam and Charlotte's story explores the idea of living in the present and for all its worth. They both live in a reputational bourgeois city called Edinburgh where people live comfortably and with high importance. But this hierachy they see in themselves is only a rubbing off of the city onto themselves, they lean on something which is wonderful and rest on it until the day they discover they are not the city nor wonderful.
“People find themselves born into a city that’s so beautiful, so grand and unusual, that they just kind of transfer those qualities to themselves...If you’re not from Edinburgh, you don’t live up to their standards” (Evans, 2).
Charlotte is a 'goth' a label pinned to her by pop culture because of her interests and the way she dresses. This gives her an identity which makes her feel good and gives her power but also dictates the way she is perceived by the rest of the world, of which does not always work the way she would like it to: "I mean, being a Goth is not about Night of the living Dead - it’s about the romance of the darkness, its sexy like vampires are sexy”(Evans). She also goes on to say that anyone who has an identity which is a little different or less socially acceptable is above everyone else. People who like 'frotting' live outside of social restrictions: “It is my strongly held belief that the three most intelligent groups of society are female Goths – we really are; we have to be – and homosexuals and...uh...cats” (Evans).
“People find themselves born into a city that’s so beautiful, so grand and unusual, that they just kind of transfer those qualities to themselves...If you’re not from Edinburgh, you don’t live up to their standards” (Evans, 2).
Charlotte is a 'goth' a label pinned to her by pop culture because of her interests and the way she dresses. This gives her an identity which makes her feel good and gives her power but also dictates the way she is perceived by the rest of the world, of which does not always work the way she would like it to: "I mean, being a Goth is not about Night of the living Dead - it’s about the romance of the darkness, its sexy like vampires are sexy”(Evans). She also goes on to say that anyone who has an identity which is a little different or less socially acceptable is above everyone else. People who like 'frotting' live outside of social restrictions: “It is my strongly held belief that the three most intelligent groups of society are female Goths – we really are; we have to be – and homosexuals and...uh...cats” (Evans).
Jacques Lacan says we are all looking to fill a void inside us - one of love and partnership, like a soul mate and someone who will make us feel complete. Sex can be seen as an act to complete oneself where two people physically join together and become one. Adam and Charlotte argue that what is more important is the mental connection between two people rather than the physical
“...frotting is basically a kind of rub...there’s no real physical connection. No tab A into slot B and so on...But skin on skin, touching, feeling, and again, rubbing, and I can’t stress rubbing enough, it really is quite important, and suddenly you kind of become one. I like that” (Evans).
Vampires in pop culture tend to be metaphors for sex where instead of putting one anatomy into another they exchange blood.
In
contrast to our temporary union in sex theirs is a permanent connection and their partnership is seen as a much more enduring union than any physical sexual union human beings have.“Frotting Reality” becomes “rubbing up against reality” which becomes “being one with reality” Sex is different for males and females: for females it is a way of connecting and a way of creating life and for males it is a way of ejaculating/ spreading their seed" “Women are different...our sexuality is sacred” (Evans) which Charlotte says in response to Adam thinking up names for a vagina - “flaps of fun”.
“...frotting is basically a kind of rub...there’s no real physical connection. No tab A into slot B and so on...But skin on skin, touching, feeling, and again, rubbing, and I can’t stress rubbing enough, it really is quite important, and suddenly you kind of become one. I like that” (Evans).
Vampires in pop culture tend to be metaphors for sex where instead of putting one anatomy into another they exchange blood.
In
contrast to our temporary union in sex theirs is a permanent connection and their partnership is seen as a much more enduring union than any physical sexual union human beings have.“Frotting Reality” becomes “rubbing up against reality” which becomes “being one with reality” Sex is different for males and females: for females it is a way of connecting and a way of creating life and for males it is a way of ejaculating/ spreading their seed" “Women are different...our sexuality is sacred” (Evans) which Charlotte says in response to Adam thinking up names for a vagina - “flaps of fun”.
Are cartoons more real than pop culture TV? The term “mindless watching” applies to all cartoons but like fairy tales are these ways of telling children what life is really like in a buttered up way,
“What’s real about a game show? If you get something wrong on the wheel of fortune, somebody makes a buzzing sound.You fuck up in Roadrunner, and an eight foot bird pushes you off a cliff. He still makes a beeping sound, but it’s closer to real life, surely” (Evans).
And then Adam reminds Charlotte that nature is not within our power, it is something much more powerful than any nuclear bomb or piece of technology we are ever to invent “I don’t know. Not long...it’s not an exact science, you know. Its not like Radio Times; its sunrise, not MTV”(Evans)
“Chalotte: Shame we don’t have a remote control.
“What’s real about a game show? If you get something wrong on the wheel of fortune, somebody makes a buzzing sound.You fuck up in Roadrunner, and an eight foot bird pushes you off a cliff. He still makes a beeping sound, but it’s closer to real life, surely” (Evans).
And then Adam reminds Charlotte that nature is not within our power, it is something much more powerful than any nuclear bomb or piece of technology we are ever to invent “I don’t know. Not long...it’s not an exact science, you know. Its not like Radio Times; its sunrise, not MTV”(Evans)
“Chalotte: Shame we don’t have a remote control.
Adam:What, you want to channel hop reality?
Cahrlotte:Yeah. I’m a couch potato when it comes to the spectacular” (Evans).
Adam is a free spirit and he lives outside of reality where to him reality is when people are fake and robotic to social norms i.e the day time when everyone is about and living. Therefore he prefers to spend time awake in the night time which he deems as more real:
“Charlotte: MOST night? When d’you sleep?
“Charlotte: MOST night? When d’you sleep?
Adam:In the boring bits. Daytime.”
“Life is short. Fiddle with your willy while you can” (Vimrod greetings cards, last lemon productions)
Watching the sun set every morning is a ritual Adam practices because it is something he can believe in where the sun rising is one of the only things constantly dependable, and like death, it is an inevitability. The sun set is the polar opposite to death – a re-birthing “All this talk of virginity. A kissed mouth does not lose its freshness. Like the moon, it rises new again.” (VirginTerritory, DVD)
Basically Adam is all about living life to the full. And he thinks he can achieve this by ritual, and distancing himself from 'reality' which he deems as pop culture. Life is hard as well as it is easy all of us will experience a hardship so all of us must move on with it,“Sometimes you have to get on with the real stuff” (Evans) Adam takes pleasure in the simple and little things because these are most pure and free of human influences:
“Adam: Yeah, but even the mundane stuff’s beautiful if it hits you right.
“Adam: Yeah, but even the mundane stuff’s beautiful if it hits you right.
Charlotte: Maybe. But then falling stars never gave any fucker lung cancer” (Evans).
Death is always presently impending except in your dreams.
Death is always presently impending except in your dreams.
DARON AND NICK
Daron and Nick have problems. Daron is recovering from a suicide attempt, and having got out of a sanitarium earlier than advised...he is totally hypersensitive to reality...Nick, his long suffering partner drags him away on holiday. To the coast of Scotland, hoping that ‘trees and tartan’will save him. No such thing happens. Daron is plagued by nightmares. He confesses to Nick that he thinks he thinks he will never recover. As Nick watches, Daron walks into the sea”(Evans, )
Throughout the play Daron is haunted by the sounds of a dog yelping due to his recent witnessing of a dog being run over by a car to be left paralyzed. A dog is an animal like the goat is Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia. An animal is devoid of the mirror phase – pure and completely whole - devoid of language and society. It represents him and what he feels is happening to him.
Daron and Nick take a trip to Scotland to escape the city however Daron soon finds out that your problems follow where ever you go. Time is not measured spacially – you could be constantly moving/thinking/active and not move anywhere: “To the coast of Scotland, hoping that trees and tartan will save him” (Evans).
“As Nick watches, Daron walks into the sea” (Evans).
The sea in the story is a symbol for freedom, freedom from everything un-natural but also from everything human. “Daron: Its fucking chaos, it’s so...so inescapable
The sea in the story is a symbol for freedom, freedom from everything un-natural but also from everything human. “Daron: Its fucking chaos, it’s so...so inescapable
Nick: It’s just life...it’s just what is
Daron's mind is stuck, it can still see beauty but all it understands is that the seasons keep changing, same thing over and over - progress to nowhere. “I know it is (Scotland is beautiful). I can still see that. Its radiant. But its soul and water and atoms. I’m sorry, I’m glad we’re here. But it’s just particles. Its quarks and electrons” (Evans). "Its October. Trees are going red”(Evans).“(Ref to his state of mind) Nah. I’m bored with it, frankly. It never changes” (Evans).
The Mickey Mouse references are constant throughout the play and run into all three narratives particularly Elsa's. They are there as a reference to capitalism, “Well, I admit it’s not Father Christmas, blazing poker, Mickey Mouse’s underpants Blood of Satan – red, but it’s still noticeably redder than the others”(Evans)
“It’s very dark” (Evans).
“Nick: What’s swallowing you?
Adam: Dunno. The world. Reality. The whole of fucking reality. White noise. Buildings.The dark, the light. Fucking everything. I panic in the streets. I’ve told you all this” (Evans).
A Sad
Falling down through an endless pit
Nowhere to go but down
The whole worlds swallowing me
Every day Every town
Everything, everyone against me
I cant help but hide
From the vicious universe
I want to escape this ghostly ride
Lie to me betray me
Drown me in the sea
Pull the plughole from the sink
Unlock the key, set me free
I'm restless and cowardly
I don’t know what's wrong
I've got anger inside me
Its been there too long
I want to scream and cry
Let it all go out the door
To leave me alone
So I am not trapped any more
No food or water for so long
I don’t know what they taste like
No happiness or kindness
Has yet entered my world, my jail
No generosity or helpfulness
Nobody has volunteered
No nothing, only sadness
Falling down through an endless pit
Nowhere to go but down
My life has left me in shambles, and left me
All on my own
By Sophie Lancaster, aged 12 years old.
What we don't know cant harm us. Unfortunately with age comes a wealth of experience and knowledge and as that continues the more we are parted from our care free baby life. “...There was a time when I could look at the sky and feel inspired. Like it was some kind of connection. Some gathering or something...Galaxy of starts – well, that’s a London pallodium...And now stars are just another word for big haircuts...Fuck it, I don’t care of the truths out there. I want it to stay there. The truths half the problem”(Evans).
“Coming to terms with the fact that everyone I know and I myself will die – the only certain thing in life – was hard. I was very angry at the world for a while and I felt very betrayed”(Psychologies magazine. Interview with Toni Collette March 2010).
Faith “Um...I don’t know! I suppose I was questioning what life was all about and I didn’t like not having the answers.And I mean faith is lovely, but its ultimately just making a decision to believe in something . And that’s not enough for me – except when it comes to work. When I have that feeling about a job. It draws me in and it’s almost like I have no choice...” (Collette).
“The trouble is, ‘when you are a Bear of very little brain and you think of things, you find sometimes that a thing which seemed very thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it” (Sibley, Brian. (2001). Three Cheers for Pooh. London: Egmont Children’s Books Ltd.)
A lady talking about coping and living with a disability: “I’m just getting on with my condition, and hope to show others that we cant always have an answer for everything. But that’s the adventure of living" (Siri Hustvendi “The Shaking Woman)
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