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Essay / Fun Home: Turning a Tragic Childhood into a Hit Musical
Combining two genres, comics and memoirs, Alison Bechdel's graphic novel, Fun Home, is now presented as a musical at the Young Vic in London. This magnificent production is adapted by Lisa Kron, composed by Jeanine Tesori and directed by Sam Gold. With resonant music and a detailed scene, Bechdel's story appears brilliantly to the audience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In Fun Home, Bechdel describes two stages of his life. As a child, she lives in a small town in Pennsylvania with two younger brothers, her mother Helen who is an English teacher and her father Bruce who is a high school English teacher, funeral director, and mad pyrotechnician. When she went to college, she discovered her homosexuality and met her first girlfriend Joan. After a few months of his revelation and two weeks of his parents' divorce, Bechdel learns that Bruce was hit by a truck and died. The story is organized around the exploration of Bruce's death and his secret homosexuality. There is also a hidden third stage, where Bechdel, as an adult, begins to memorize his family tragedy and recounts it. All three Alisons do a great job of showcasing three stages of Alison. This musical is presented in the form of a story since the adult Bechdel (Kaisa Hammarlund) remains on stage all the time to tell the memory of his family. The scene of young Bechdel (Brooke Haynes) playing the "airplane game" with Bruce (Zubin Varla) and refusal to wear a dress to the party suggest her tomboyish personality. The memorization process is very real as Hammarlund holds a silver teapot when she talks about her father's artifice happiness when he finds this beautiful item. When she enters college, medium Bechdel (Eleanor Kane), standing in front of the Gay Union door, awkwardly shows her hesitation and fear to confront her homosexuality at the beginning of her new self-discovery. After sleeping with Joan (Cherrelle Skeete), the surprise and joy on Kane's face suggests that Bechdel is fully embracing her lesbian sexuality. Music is an art form that uses sounds to express ideas and emotions to audiences so that people can better understand those feelings. Although Fun Home, considered Bechdel's family funeral business, is about a family tragedy, there are times when Bechdel has fun with his two younger brothers. When the children come out of the coffin and sing the funny song "Welcome to the Fun Home", the audience laughs the whole time. It seems that their happiness successfully infects the crowd with fun music. When Varla stands in a dark room and emotionally sings the moving song "Edges of the World", he clearly shows the desperation and helplessness of a man, a father and a gay man. His confusion about his complex identity is revealed in the heavy, fast-paced music and the lyrics "Who am I now?" Where should I go? explicitly. Although when he sings "But when the sunlight hits the living room wall", the music softens, leading the audience to think that they might yearn for family, with the last chord symbolizing that he has been hit by a truck is heartbreaking. Keep in mind: This is just a sample.Get a personalized essay from our expert writers now.Get a custom essayThis adaptation shows Bechdel's desire to know his father very well as it depicts the memory of important moments of Bruce's secret to the public: his velvet clothes, his late-night newspaper shopping trips and hidden joy..