The Glory of Living

by Rebecca Gilman

The award-winning, "viscerally powerful" ( The Guardian ) early play by the author of Spinning Into Butter and Boy Gets Girl

Set in the rural Deep South, Rebecca Gilman's The Glory of Living received critical acclaim rare for a new American play when it had its British premiere in 1999, garnering the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright. Set to open in New York in the fall of 2001, this work focuses on fifteen-year-old Lisa, the daughter of a prostitute, and Clint, the car thief she runs away with to escape the misery of life with her mother. But the happier times that sullenly childlike Lisa yearns for never materialize, as Clint orders her to procure young runaways for him. No one notices that these teenage girls are missing until an anonymous call to the police reports their murders. Could the caller--and the killer--be Lisa? Rebecca Gilman has created a riveting, unsentimental portrait of a young woman whose most striking quality is not her capacity for evil but the depth of her emptiness, in an environment as harsh and unyielding as the contours of her life

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 18, 2001

Reviews

[Rebekah · Rating 2 out of 5]

LISA
Them other people askin' questions was real mad at me.

CARL
Well, you killed some people, Lisa. That doesn't really make you popular.

This play is gross. It's dark and gross, and while I'm not generally opposed to that (hell, I love Sarah Kane and Lucy Thurber!) I don't like this play because there aren't any bright spots, and there aren't characters that you want to root for.

Clint's character doesn't really have any depth - he's a pedophile and serial rapist, and there's not much more to him. He isn't a sophisticated abuser; he maintains control through violence, that's really all there is to him. Lisa is where Gilman has opportunity for a character with a lot of depth - because Lisa is Clint's victim, but is also Clint's muscle. She is the one who procures girls for him to rape, and then murders them for him afterwards. The problem is that Gilman doesn't really do much for her. It's implied that Clint sort of kidnapped her when she was fifteen, and got her pregnant at sixteen, and now he's taking her with him on the road to do his dirty work - withholding her children from her and beating her as means of control. But Lisa also does love Clint, and she acts a lot less conflicted about what he does - since she knows exactly what he's doing - than it would seem, even though she does try to report the bodies that she leaves behind. She doesn't seem to know why she went along with what Clint told her to do, and she doesn't think she was forced into doing things. Carl, her attorney, tries to keep her from landing herself on death row, but she can't. There's like the ghost of social commentary about how the justice system treats people who are both victims and perpetrators, but Gilman doesn't lean either way. Without Lisa having a more complete psychological portrait about why she does what she does, I don't think the audience can feel bad for her, because she seems indifferent to her own actions.

I think I do understand why this play has accumulated so much praise, but it does not work for me, and I really hated the ambiguous ending.

[Lexie Shumate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play was very interesting and reminded me of actual couples who have committed crimes together. I was very intrigued by Lisa's character and her history.

There were definitely parts of this play that I thought would be disgusting to watch, so I'd be interested in seeing how a director would put on this play without ostracizing the audience.

[Si Squires-Kasten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gilman presents a few different explanations as to why Lisa killed those girls - jealousy, a cycle of abuse, charitably granting them the liberation she couldn't give herself - but refuses to allow access into her protagonist's psyche, making this play too slight for me to love.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my goodness.

[GG · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disturbing, raw, and devastating.

[Ronja Me · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending made me forgive

[Nick K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play was so unexpectedly moving. I felt such sympathy for Lisa and her everlasting apathy towards life's harrowing realities. The depth of her emptiness was stunning. She is so tragically real and the scenes between her and her attorney were masterfully written. She was playing the cards life dealt her as best she could. She was trying to survive. But for what? For that child like optimism that one day, she will find the glory of love and life. The voices in this play belong to some shady, dangerous drifters of the underbelly, pushed away society. Still, they are human and deserve to be heard. They all are looking for connection and love, in their own tragic and misguided ways. Gilman really showed us what places she is willing to explore in an honest and compassionate way.

[Letitia · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not that I don't like real life in a play, but I HAVE to find SOMETHING redeeming in at least on character, someone who I root for, a protagonist who I want to come out on top, even if they don't. I just found this play depressing, and wanted to take a shower afterwards. Everyone else I know seems to like this play though, so maybe it's just me...

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth watching or reading for the main character of Lisa, a fifteen year old that helps her boyfriend kidnap and murder people. It's chilling because you get the sense that she's out there... somewhere.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

i'm typically a big rebecca gilman fan, but i HATED this play. what the??? is the best i can say about it.

[Alena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Naturally I am biased as I was involved (as Asst. Director) for its world premiere at Circle Theatre. But it's brilliant. Harrowing and unpleasent, but ultimately redemptive.

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tough read. There were a few shocks in this one; the most shocking moment was Lisa's description of killing one of her victims by injectind Draino (sic) into her neck. Geez.

[Aleigha · Rating 4 out of 5]

An actors dream. A play written about characters which seem to have little to no redeeming qualities, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. There is A LOT to play with!