I really liked Vonnegut’s Who am I this time?. I was really hoping the whole time that those two bland human beings would fall in love with each other. Even though they got married in like a week, I still approve (after all, I live in Provo it’s not unheard of).
I have had the opportunity to work with many Thespians. I performed in Highschool. I currently play piano for Improv shows and take comedy classes and will one day finish my stand-up routine.
I think Vonnegut presented perfectly the exaggeration of theatre through Helene. The sweet comedians at Improv Broadway and Comedy Sports are all pretty calm average people. (I will say they are average people who are also funny and witty in real life too). They have day jobs and families and they are constrained to put on bland customer service voices. But on stage, they have an Improv personality. They become the people who jump off the stage, who kiss the other players for a laugh, who scramble up an actual wall. Even though, they might not have an assigned character they become a heightened and energetic version of themselves. That version, that crazy, uncontrollable version, that will say absolutely anything and do, even more, is what people pay to laugh at. That version is the version that keeps me entertained at every Improv show even though I’ve been to almost a hundred.
Vonnegut shows this transformation with Helene. Helene by acting learns how to express her emotions. Even though she hasn’t been in love, she is no stranger to frustration, to sadness (as we see with her crying and her moving with the phone company). Helene, in the play, is acting out her love for Harry in a heightened and more dramatic way. That bleeds through to the end of opening night when she offers Harry a rose and when she offers him a present on closing night.
Theatre gave her the resources to express her emotions and even feel emotions she wouldn’t ordinarily encounter.
Also, watch me play the piano…
https://www.improvbroadway.com/https://www.comedysportzutah.com/
