Water By The Spoonful

In Scene 12, two completely different things are happening on stage simultaneously. On one side, Orangutan is sleeping at the train station while on the other Yaz and Elliot break into Odessa’s house and find her lying motionless on the floor. Yaz and Elliot attempt to bring Odessa to the couch and she sort of astroprojects herself; she watches the two struggling to bring her back to life. Meanwhile, a Policeman enters the train station and shines a flashlight on Orangutan. What’s cool is that that bright light is also seen in Odessa’s home by Odessa and Yaz, but it represents something else (it’s sort of that light at the end of the tunnel). Yaz tells Odessa to go into it, but Elliot does not see the light. The scene then flips back to Orangutan and the policeman. The policeman is concerned about Orangutan and also tells her she can’t sleep on the floor, to which she apologizes and gets on her way. The policeman leaves as well, taking the flashlight with him. Because of this, the light in Odessa’s home fades and she returns to her body. Yaz tells Elliot he has to forgive her, indicating that she can’t “move on” due to “unfinished business” (like Casper). This scene seems both consonant and dissonant. On one hand, we see Odessa being saved and Orangutan sleeping-perfect harmony. The dissonance occurs when Orangutan awakes and Odessa isn’t “ready”. This scene was really strong in comparison to a lot of the other scenes because it gives hope and also takes it away. I think Hudes has these moments occurring when they do because of the tension. Before this, the last scene of Yaz and Elliot occurred at the funeral of Mami Ginny. Likewise, the last time Orangutan is seen is in an argument with Chutes&Ladders about several things, including her returning home and asking him to join her. In this scene, those conflicts continue on in different shadows but are shared by the same light.