STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: THEATRE - “Sin”
It’s easy to blame your misery on other people when they are legitimately and objectively making your own life miserable. But that is never an excuse for your own awful behavior towards others.
Written by Wendy MacLeod, Sin is about Avery, a traffic reporter who deals with seven obnoxious people, including her boss, her roommate, an annoying flirt, and even her selfish brother; all of these people represent one of the “seven deadly sins.”
The play introduces its cast in its first act, with Avery interacting with each character and showing how frustrated she is with each of them. When the 1989 San Francisco, California occurs at the end of act one (the inciting incident), the second act has her encountering almost everyone again. However, this time civility is thrown out the window.
It’s not hard to see Avery’s plight. She’s just trying to live her life, and in the case of act two, just trying to see her (soon to be ex) husband, but everyone is just making it difficult. However, we soon learn that she’s not exactly an angel trying to make everyone’s lives better through her actions and words; she has her own sins as well. It’s some of these same people that helps her, and in essence the audience, realize that.
This element of having Avery represent the audience makes us realize our own faults, and hopefully fix them before it’s too late to.
I was introduced to this play as required reading in a theater class in college, and even performed a scene from it as an assignment. As an introductory, it’s very easy to understand and to follow: most of the scenes have protagonist Avery having a one on one conversation with another character.
Sin is a story about the people who frustrate us and how sometimes we are not so innocent as well. We have our own problems much like they have their own problems, and we deal with them by yelling, eating, or just have no drive. In the end, we all need help from each other.
Take flight, and check it out.
