First Play - 7/1/23 - Bloom Bloom Pow by Genevieve Simon

I chose to read this one first because I read an article about plays about climate change, something I know a lot of my students are passionate about. This play was mentioned, and the fascinating photo above was included - I wanted to know more about this one! Digging deeper, there was a linked article written by the self-described non-binary queer playwright. The article talked about the playwright’s need for humor in the piece, and between that, the fact that it centered a non-binary character and the intriguing photos, I was in for the read!

Summary: "Bloom Bloom Pow is a climate-doom-comedy. This rural queer adventure is an underwater romance. It’s a workplace nightmare. It’s a devastating reminder that we can’t fix our parents. But good news -- the algae’s growing bigger every day! Oh wait, that’s bad news for us. Inspired by the Creature from the Black Lagoon, toxic algal blooms in the Great Lakes, and phone calls with your mom, this highly theatrical play celebrates resilience and joy in the face of climate devastation."(New Play Exchange)

I loved: Magical realism, conversations between real characters seemed honest and were funny, interesting juxtaposition to more abstract moments, loved the characters of Algae and the Creature, love the challenges of staging swimming, green goo everywhere, etc. Wonderfully thought-provoking about climate change, gently poking fun at liberals while recognizing that they will be the ones to appreciate the play, nice perspective on farmers - more human than the 2D version we sometimes get, loved the queering of everything, loved the rivalry between the Great Lakes as characters!

What I didn’t love: I ended up wondering "what really happened" - sometimes with real vs. fantasy elements we lose what is true (something the main character struggles with as well), but I like to know how things end up. What happened to the parents, what happened to the relationship with Alice, why is Mag having sex with Floyd again? So the logical side of me was somewhat annoyed. The ending is somewhat clearer on a global scale but less on a personal scale, and the playwright gets that the personal scale is what keeps the audience interested in the play. Do I want a tidier ending? Embarassingly, I do, although the artistic piece of me understands why I don't get it. Also, the stage directions are amazing, and important to the story and I don't know if creative representations of those will do them justice.

Overall: Overall, I was incredibly intrigued by the play. It’s wonderfully full of magical realism, which I love, but makes it a little hard to really get the feel of the piece from just a reading. I think the play does a great job of showing the effects of climate change, and making subtler points about the difficult questions farmers face, being a non-binary human being navigating the world and it’s challenges, and even the affectionate mocking of the hyper-liberals in the piece. Did it affect me profoundly? No. Was it as funny as I hoped? No. HOWEVER, I definitely would like to play with the piece and want to read it again to understand it more - it's clearly far deeper than a quick reading. Can an audience fully connect to it with no background? It left me wondering. But, the photos from a production definitely drew me, so perhaps a full production would take me deeper and be more profound. This one’s definitely worth seeing, and exploring further!

Here’s a link to Google Sheets with more info about the play: Play a Day Google Sheet

Also, here’s a link to the HowlRound article if you want more info: https://howlround.com/grief-and-humor-climate-change-theatre