The Flaws of the Personal
by Caitlin Murphy
@juliusmarx1977
My Playwright Sister is a tricky piece to review. One of its goals is to actively question our ability to reflect on or represent others, a reminder that we are forever locked in our own limiting perspectives. It's also a true hybrid: a meta-theatrical piece straddling several generic modes. That said, it's also, at its core, a bold assertion that art is a conversation. So I wade in.
My Playwright Sister takes as its starting point My Pregnant Brother, Johanna Nutter's hugely successful one-woman play about her transgender brother, James Diamond, and his pregnancy. This 'sequel' is largely conceived as an opportunity for Diamond to speak back to that play, air his feelings about being represented (and arguably exploited) by his sister. The siblings proceed for the next hour to discuss and debate not only Nutter's original play, but indeed the very play we're watching, referencing the process of creating it, their director, Jesse Stong. Along the way much fascinating ground is covered: the complicated nature of memory, gender-normative assumptions, sibling tension and tenderness, the always humbling and never-easy task of truly understanding another human being.
