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Character exaggeration and its comments on current society

Contemporary playwrights are constantly writing about and commenting on current social and political issues. Some do it directly and very obviously, addressing the events in the plot and the world of the play. Others do it merely through being classified as contemporary, without needing to address topics like war, politics, or racism. The very fact that they are writing in the current world makes their work a product of the issues facing the world every day. So how does one compare and contrast plays from each of these categories? If a piece is almost “over-addressing” a social topic, almost to the point of satire or stereotype, can it be placed into a category with a play that is built around exaggerating the lack of such a topic, using a plot which doesn’t draw from current issues at all? I have found that it is this very opposition which creates large similarities between these kinds of plays. The two plays I would like to discuss do just this and, in turn, reveal other parallels which comment on the nature of human communication. Although both pieces are written a bit too obviously for my personal taste, Trying to Find Chinatown by David Henry Hwang and Reverse Transcription by Tony Kushner create a similar stat

ement through the playwrights’ exaggeration of stereotype and lack of plot resolution that people’s knowledge of themselves in the contemporary world is constantly being covered up and locked away.

BIFF: O please come to me short sweet simple perfect idea. A seed, a plot. There’s no dignity, have you noticed? In being this. An American playwright. What is that?

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