Mary Miller - Ferris Bicycle (Overview)
The plot is basic, the dialogue is uncomplicated, the setting minimalist. But similar the surface of a calm sea, what lies beneath is to a greater extent than than the optic tin consider at offset glance.
So dive into the depths of this play in addition to detect the lives that reside amidst the seaweed in addition to coral reefs. This play is the novel land in addition to funfair version of ships that hit in the night, fleeting, meeting, on their way again.
For those looking for an online version of the text, the only (very poor) re-create I constitute was here, amongst several scribbles in addition to notes.
Mary Miller – Ferris Wheel
Playwright:
- Mary Miller, born in addition to raised inward Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
- was an actress (both onstage + on TV) earlier she became a author
- Ferris Wheel is a play incorporated inward a wellness in addition to wellness computer programme she created (Acting Healthy)
- program includes acting tips in addition to techniques to assist people atomic number 82 happier, healthier lives
Setting:
- on a Ferris wheel
- present day
Genre:
- comedy
- romantic comedy
Plot:
- John has to portion a topographic point side yesteryear side to Dorie on a Ferris wheel: draw is likewise long to permit whatever seats kicking the bucket unused
- Dorie is afraid of heights
- John is afraid to quit smoking
- Dorie rides a Ferris bicycle every twelvemonth on her birthday
- Ferris bicycle stops
- their insecurities come upward out piece they hold back for the Ferris bicycle to start again
- they kiss
- once they larn off they formally say goodbye but John asks her every bit they business office whether she’ll last dorsum side yesteryear side twelvemonth
Characters:
- minimal cast: ane man, ane woman
- John
- divorced
- traveling salesman
- started smoking since he was 12 yrs old
- has larn used to beingness alone: “You larn over it. You adjust.”
- sociable, polite, amiable, slowly to utter to:
- sees her frightened thus talks to her, doesn’t ignore her until the halt of the ride
- “Are yous comfortable?”
- keeps quest her if she’s all right
- apologizes
- compliments her: “But yous filled out nicely.”
- probably the ane inward the spousal human relationship who went along amongst what the married adult woman said
- she got upward in addition to left him
- “They forcefulness yous to last a span whether yous desire to or not.”
- worried close health
- when he sees her gripping the bar in addition to her knuckles are turning white, his thinks how this isn’t skilful for her circulation
- he stops smoking the infinitesimal Dorie describes the demonstration of what smoking does to your lungs
- fears he’s getting older
- worries he’s “going to blow upward similar a blimp” from eating a lot in ane trial he quits smoking
- stops biting his fingernails every bit before long every bit Dorie tells him close her roommate from schoolhouse who got gangrene from an infected hangnail
- he’s the human who comforts, has a calming explanation for everything:
- “They’re likely making an adjustment. We’ll last moving … whatever minute.”
- “Anything is possible.”
- “Truth is stranger than fiction.”
- tells her to aspect upward every bit if she were lying on her dorsum inward a field
- says it won’t pelting because his genu locks upward when it rains
- “It’s heed over matter.” “It’s all volition power.”
- “The prettiest daughter doesn’t ever win.”
- his cool, calm outside hides insecurities
- his calming techniques remove hold been mastered through years of do on himself (“Visualization. See a stream. A peaceful … placidity … winding stream….”)
- “I experience fat. Do I aspect fat?”
- he apologizes several times to her in addition to says it’s his mistake (family powerfulness remove hold made him experience guilty for everything he did)
- marked yesteryear his strict grandmother: relates her to money, in addition to relates coin to success
- his heed connects going places amongst the dark leather handbag his grandma used to have: “I idea without that purse, she wasn’t going whatever place… Not Heaven … non Hell.”
- she haunts her draw of piece of job solid inward search for her handbag (connection to one’s coin transcends death)
- she never permit him chew mucilage because she was miserly, idea it was a waste product of money:
- she likely taught him to relieve money, last frugal to a greater extent than than he would remove hold liked
- now he powerfulness realize he hasn’t enjoyed life (his auto is a modest one; he used to steal coin from the collection plate at mass)
- unconsciously he’s larn money-driven similar his grandmother: tells Dorie he’ll pay her $100 if she stops talking
- reason he jumps when Dorie throws him her dark leather handbag in addition to his “NO! No, I tin wait.” shows the extent of his grandmother’s dependent tactics
- Dorie (from Dorien)
- woman without her ain voice/will/point of view; her statements are total of draw of piece of job solid unit of measurement clichés
- she never questions but repeats or does what draw of piece of job solid unit of measurement members remove hold told her
- father: do sth that frightens yous in ane trial a year; “Builds character. Strengthens moral fiber.”
- mother: “You’re every bit erstwhile every bit yous feel.” ; “…it was our social obligation to last entertaining.” ; never accept coin from a stranger
- grandmother: chewing mucilage is tacky, socially incorrect
- her woman parent would never permit her cook
- she’ll supply side yesteryear side twelvemonth to ride the Ferris bicycle because her draw of piece of job solid unit of measurement is “keen on tradition.”
- she reads horoscopes to tell her when she’ll last lucky / to tell her what to do
- she never experiences but recounts the experiences of others / watches the lives of others piece hers goes by
- cousin who got locked upward inward the attic during a thunderstorm in addition to was burnt to a crisp along amongst the house
- cousin who made her debut inward the Vietnam War
- her sis who was a Nixon supporter during the Watergate Convention
- watches Kennedy’s funeral for a week
- reads stories close snowbound victims inward the Andes (true 1972 event) or shipwrecked survivors on a desert island
- Miss Congeniality story
- is interrupted when she starts the even out close her aunt inward Dublin
- her insecurity isn’t only linked to her fearfulness of heights, it’s a feeling of full general insecurity
- she believes what happened to those who were stranded inward the Andes or on a desert isle volition occur to her
- she says she can’t halt talking only when she’s nervous, but continues to utter non-stop when she gets off the Ferris bicycle safely
- always looks on the negative side of life: John tells her to aspect upward non down; when she does, she doesn’t realize it helps; what she sees is only that it’s going to pelting thus the bicycle volition larn stuck because of rust
- sees bad omens inward everything: today the cream inward her java curdled upward similar a map of the Himalayas
- she’s a romantic at pump but her fears cloud her life
- “Instead of falling inward dearest yous remove hold to worry close beingness dinner.”
- what defines her = she wants to last liked yesteryear others
- this is what her draw of piece of job solid unit of measurement held every bit precious inward life (if Miss Congeniality were a fellow member of the family, the draw of piece of job solid unit of measurement would remove hold been proud)
Themes:
- phobia / fear
- psychological phobias people have
- fear people remove hold of others
- fear people remove hold of living, having their ain willpower
- nostalgia
- both think close the past: “I used to last thin.”
- this nostalgia is brought on yesteryear the fact that both are having to bargain amongst growing older in addition to beingness alone
- John decided to ride the Ferris bicycle because he “used to produce this every bit a kid…”
- Dorie’s references to what her draw of piece of job solid unit of measurement said in addition to did could also last a shape of nostalgia
- John’s solution for Dorie to aspect upward every bit if she’s lying inward a plain on her dorsum implies he remembers how soothing it was when he did the same every bit a younger boy
- Dorie remembers the maps she used to brand inward high schoolhouse out of flour in addition to tabular array salt water
- John remembers his grandmother who kept her coin inward a dark leather purse
Symbols:
- Ferris wheel
- circle of life, Samsara, ‘what goes to a greater extent than or less comes around’
- Samsara: substitution concept of Indian / Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism); inward Sanskrit it agency “wandering”, “world”, “cyclic change”
- in this sense, the Ferris bicycle symbolizes life’s flow: its ups in addition to downs, starts in addition to stops, its abrupt jolts
- the message hither is that inward life nosotros are placed side yesteryear side to strangers inward the same car, pass a total bicycle amongst them, in addition to thus business office to perhaps come across upward amongst them in ane trial again later
- rat wheels / exercise wheels
- in this sense, the Ferris bicycle symbolizes an eternal, pointless activeness
- rat wheels are toys inward cages, meant to maintain animals gibe to avoid obesity in addition to boredom
- this implies that people are caged in addition to try forms of diversion to distract them from a province of affairs that creates stress in addition to doesn’t allow excess energy, creativity, emotions from beingness released
