The striking aspect of the first act was the return to the concept of Steppenwolf as an experimental theater in this regard both the stage design and presentation.
In the first act, the blue rectangle stage has no adornments and no materials at all. The first act was frenetic as the two young main characters are left to illustrate their high school relationship via body placement, lighting choices, and movement. I didn't know how they would keep up such a bouncing energetic pace but, the second act added a love seat, end table, and two-person kitchen table and a third character. Obviously, at odds with the furniture being made for two.
Thinking about it, I realized the first act represented childhood, a set without bounds, even if the characters face terrible lives. Now neither character states which country they immigrated from as children with their mother's The male character "B" would seem to be from the Caribbean and the female character "G" would seem to be Mexican. G faces physical abuse from her mother's boyfriend and B's mother leaves the States having overstayed her Visa by 9 years, leaving him to try and work and get good grades in school, even though scholarships and college are denied to him by his immigration status.
The second act clearly represents the more grounded and limitations imposed by adulthood. There's even a moment when G hides a birthday cake in the fridge for B (whom she is more or less feeding with her leftovers from work) and he becomes crestfallen as we realize he's 18 now and an adult.
Perhaps more importantly, are the unspoken two choices the characters face; each character is put to the test of choosing Love or Home. Even the off-screen mother characters make the choice. B's mother returning to her Home country and G's mother choosing Love, by leaving her abusive boyfriend only to fall in with another man (who may or may not be abusive) as G bluntly states, 'She can't keep a dick out of that woman'.
This is another aspect the playwright and actors get absolutely correct, the blunt and often brutal language which doesn't feel like stilted dialogue written for a play.
There is a very dualistic aspect to this play, which is absolutely complicated by the introduction of Henry into the adult second act. G and B come up with a perhaps childish plan to get fake married int he first act. And we find out in the second act, G has become frightened of the plan as she nears graduation from "Boston". But, during the planning phase for the past 3.5 years the two have practiced their answers to questions of how, where, and why they became romantically involved.
But, G has found out B has a partner Henry and she's returned home to confront the situation. By that action G, tells B she has chosen him and Love even if it's a sham marriage and B is gay. She tells him she's choosing love even if it isn't romantic love. This is illustrated quite brilliantly when G answers the question of 'When did your relationship turn romantic', B stumbles over the answer but G gives a moving description of having claimed into his bedroom to escape another beating and recalls laying in bed with him and feeling his breathe on the back of her neck. Just excellent.
B, however, has been living with Henry for a couple of years, which she hasn't told G about and B and Henry have had fights over this. Around Thanksgiving it appears one of the fights turned physical as Henry defensively asserts 'couples fight' and he stole B's shoes to keep him from leaving, but B did leave and called G and that's when she says she's never heard him make sounds like that. I'm betting that Henry has been physically abusive and B not having the coping skills from childhood could not handle it the way G had done throughout High School.
Again G came down and choose love for B. And now we come to the tragedy of B, he wants Love but he also wants Home and he feels the situation is criminally unfair that he is being forced to choose. Home is the United States and Love is Henry, but he can't accept the love represented by G. So, B comes up with a last second plan for Henry to move with him but Henry balks and obviously chooses Home (i.e. the United States) over Love and tells B the choice has to be his and leaves the stage saying while it's unfair he didn't set up the parameters.
And G leaves so B remains with neither Home nor Love.
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