Groupie
Matty Beancourt (Anne Kavanagh) & Mark Gorman (Brian Deacon)
Photo by Reinhard Reidinger, from Vienna English Theater
Groupie by Arnold Wesker
Feb 17th, 2016
Vienna English Theater
Different from other theatre plays that entails a lot of actors, Groupie is a play that only has two actors, Anne Kavanagh as Matty Beancourt, and Brian Deacon as Mark Gorman. Matty is a grandmother-aged woman, who is warm and loving, chatty, a little naïve and still enthusiastic about life. After Matty read the autobiography of Mark Gorman, a famous painter living in London, she admired him and his works, and was so excited that she wrote a letter to him. Unexpectedly, Mark Gorman wrote her a letter back, and they started to write to each other back and forth. One day, after a long time not receiving Gorman’s letter back, Matty decided to pay him a visit. The visit turned out very discouraging because Matty found out the glorious life of Gorman are not true. Instead, Gorman lives a disappointing and messy life. Gorman is not the enthusiastic man in the autobiography as well, but instead a grumpy and frightening old man who is unhappy. However, the warm and loving Matty, with her admiration to Mark, didn’t give up on him and persistently visited him regularly. They influenced each other through their time together. They both get their salvation and finally they fell in love to each other.
I would describe Groupie as a Presentational play. One obvious example is that one time, when Matty and Mark were hanging out in a park, Mark pretended that he picked up a small stone and threw it towards to lake- which in this setting is where the audience are sitting. This is a very interesting scene that the play indirectly recognize the existence of the audience and make interaction with the audience. There was sound effect of the stone jumping on the lake, moving through the audience’s seats, and the interaction was successful that people started to giggle. Another example I noticed was when Mark addressed his opinion of “There is no reality in this world”. He faced and pointed the audience to Matty and asked her “Can you see these people’s front face? Can you see their back?” In this way, the play directly acknowledges the existent of the audience and make interaction with them.
The central conflict of Groupie, in my opinion, is the very different personalities and characteristics of Matty and Mark, and because of that, their meetings were not very pleasant sometimes. Matty is warm, loving, chatty, excited about life, and a little naïve and very positive and brave. Mark is grumpy, messy, pretty negative, pretty frightening and his moods are very unstable. However, they both love arts. Therefore, they a lot of times got into arguments when Matty visited him, and Mark roared at Matty a lot of times after her visit or in his letters “ Don’t ever come see me; Don’t bother me; Don’t appear in my life; You stupid woman”. Matty was mad and very upset every time, but she worried about Mark, and she admired his art works, and she had sympathy in him. Matty thought of giving up, but eventually she always wrote to Mark and visited Mark again. The conflicts presented in the play between these two characters, through their interaction with each other either through letters or meetings in person, show how different the people are, and how unlikely they will become friends and have love towards each other. However, it is also these interactions between them through their conflicts that make the changes of the two characters become so naturally. For example, every time Matty visited Mark she would bring some delicious homemade food with her to share with him. One time Marry brought some roasted chicken with her, but when she was right outside Mark’s door, Mark refused to let her in. He was very angry at her visit and rudely asked her to go back to her small town. Matty, offended by Mark, confronted him bravely and insisted on going in his studio by saying “I AM HERE WITH MY ROASTED CHICKEN AND I AM NOT GOING BACK WITH IT TONIGHT”. Mark let her in, and later the scene changed to when the both of them laughing happily, and were commenting on how delicious the chicken was. Afterwards Matty received a letter from Mark, reading “… the roasted chicken was good…” and asked her to visit him again so they can have a good night together again. From these changes in the play, I think that every time the solving of conflicts help the story-telling of the play to move on and evolve to the next level. Another example would be when Matty visited Mark one time and found the human sketched that he had been working on, and commented on how lively and amazing they are, but Mark felt humiliated and didn’t want sympathies, and he started to cry and become upset and angry at Matty and asked her to leave. Later he proceeded to sadly and angrily tell Matty the unfortunate storied happened between him and his wife a long time ago. Matty was frightened, sad, and thought she might have hurt him and she went back, leaving her food at his place. Matty was discouraged to visit him anymore and was about to give up by saying “I will never bother you again”, but she got a letter from Mark, with just a simple sentence of “Don’t forget your pans”. Clearly, Mark wanted to see her again and she became very excited and happy again. Through these examples, I think that the central conflict in the play are the different personalities and characteristics of the two characters, and these conflicts get in the way of their friendship and love.
The final moments of the play is the last time Matty visited Mark. She wanted Mark to paint her a portrait, but Mark refused to do so, because Mark think Matty’s in love with him. Mark said “You are not my type” to Matty. But Matty didn’t give up. Rather, she bravely stated “I know you want it too…”; ”I can calm you; I can help you write letters to museums; …love as companionship”; ”Just kiss me”. And they kissed. Mark seemed to be changed a person, he was excited and happy, and he stated that the kiss help him get his sensations back, “… I thought I lost them, but they have always been there!...” And finally Mark agreed to draw Matty. He wanted to draw her nude, but Matty was a little embarrassed and didn’t want to do that. Finally they reach an agreement where Mark drew Matty with one breast out. Their comments here were quite interesting as well. Matty said that she wanted to be someone special for Mark. And Mark said that by showing her one breast out she’s being special, “you are special; you are inviting me”. I found the last moments of the play very free, relaxed, and unconventional and is a happy ending. The conflict is resolved as in the end both of them are happy in love. They were making jokes and they were flirting like young people. This shows that they found the feelings of being young at heart again, and they both get their salvations by being with each other.
I think the Vienna’s English Theatre would choose to produce Groupie because it is a great play to watch about “love late in life” and for “lonely hearts”, as commented on the theatre’s website. I feel like the elders’ love and loneliness issues are not mentioned as much in the society. Also, there are not many theatre plays on this topic, but more on young people’s love, passion, habits, etc. But undeniably, the elder is an important group of out population and their stories and issues need to be addressed as well. I think Groupie is different and important that it addresses these issues and brings attention to them. Groupie is in its nature a great play that’s well worth the efforts to be put on show as well, it is full of tension, but also humorous and full of laughter. It is touching and curing, making people feel what the two old people have between them is something very beautiful. For example, it addresses the fact that there are reasons behind an unhappy soul. Mark in the play was a man who was enthusiastic of beauty and life and was a happy man in his youth. It is because what happened later in his life, the infortune on his wife that made him so sad, lonely, and proceeded to angry because as an arrogant man he didn’t want sympathy. I think this is a great example to ask people to be more understanding when meeting with older people, or people in general, because they have their unique life stories that make them into uniquely who they are. Another example is the love between Mark and Matty. This is unconventional, because sometimes the society would judge on the love between older people. However, as Mark said “I feel the sexual desire again… 20 years… I feel youth again!” The love is the same for young people and for old people. The love gives them happiness and the desire of living. It is important for them to have love. Although the love is unconventional, it should be free and there is nothing wrong about it. Also, this play is in English, so it fits the “Vienna’s English Theatre” as well.
As mentioned above, I think the play Groupie communicated the loneliness and the late love of the elders, and that they are free of pursue what makes them happy and they are free to love each other. Also as mentioned above, I feel like the play also conveys that it is important to be understanding to other people. If a person had an angry character, there are reasons that the person becomes like this. Also, I think the play praises the braveness to pursue one’s love, and it encourages females to do so because females have the right to love as well. For example, Matty, although she’s uneducated and was looked down upon by Mark at first, her braveness and her kindness changed Mark’s stubborn opinions later and gained his love and respect. Mark, seemingly so arrogant at first, and annoyed by Matty, was actually very lonely and sensitive emotionally. Both Matty and Mark were lonely, and when they became lovers, they saved each other. As Matty said, it is important to “be needed” and to be “special for someone”.
The parts of the play that appealed me the most is actually the beginning of the play. The play starts with some classical violin music. And then Matty showed up, and she was saying “No, no, not this one”. Then she stopped the musical player and changed another disk. This time some more modern pop music appeared and she immediately said “No, no, no! Not this one either!” She seemed to be very serious and anxious of finding the right music. Then she put in another music disk and this time, a very pleasant, heavenly, and somehow elegant music starts, and she was very happy and said “Yes, yes, yes! This is the one!” Then she gently takes out her lap top, and started to plan on writing her first letter to Mark. I found this scene very interesting, and lively represent Matty’s personality: she has a cute and exciting characteristics. She’s a little naïve and good-hearted. Also, this scene strongly suggests her admiration towards Mark after she read his autobiography, as she was determined to find the right music to have the right atmosphere to write the letter to Mark. This shows that she view it very important and noble to write to Mark. And I really like this starting of the show, because it is very expressive and can let me interpret the character Matty’s emotions at the time.
