Flyovers

by Jeffrey Sweet, Amy (ACT) Morton, William Petersen

A high school reunion triggers cultural hostilities between a bully and the man he once victimized.

Genres: Plays

Audio CD

First published June 22, 2010

Reviews

[Mary Sisney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m happy that I finally read one of ETHS high school classmate Jeffrey Sweet’s plays. Although we probably sat near each other in our very large (more than 200 students) North Hall homeroom, I don’t remember him. His play is focused on an incident involving a friend who was bullied in high school. What I liked about the play that was first produced in 1998 is its relevance today. In fact, I wonder if the term “flyover country,” referring primarily to the Midwest, became popular because of this play. There’s an inadvertently funny line where the character who is still living in flyover country (an Ohio town) guesses that Bill Clinton will move to LA when he leaves Washington. Wrong! He moved to New York, so his wife could be a New York Senator. The discussion of what happens to the employees when plants close in southern and midwestern towns is so relevant today that it’s easy to imagine anti-Semitic Ted and bad girl Iris, the characters left behind and out of work in flyover Ohio, storming the Capitol on 1/6/21.