The play that all of happy valley should see

Robbie Pierce's play, Wings of Wax, has been performed approximately 5 times. I feel very lucky to be one of the few people who has had the opportunity to see it because I want everyone to see this play.

It is based on the Greek myth of Icarus, who flies too close to the sun on wings of wax, which melt and send him plunging into the sea to drown. It centers on the life of October "Toby" Glantz, a young man who finds himself both Mormon and gay. The play follows him as he tries to exist while these two opposing identities pull him in different directions.

"I’m being stretched. Being pulled to somewhere beautiful, and at the same time stuck right where I am. Bound. The word “bound.” Do you ever think about it? It’s an antagonym. An auto-antonym, or a Janus word, after the two-faced Roman God. It’s a word that’s the opposite of itself. Just like me, which I suppose is the appeal. I collect this sort of word. You can be bound for something, which means you’re headed there, fast. Or you can be bound to something, which means that you’re stuck. Fast. And somehow I’m both. We’re all both. A self-contradiction of who we are and who we would be."

I really can't say enough about this play- if I say everything that I think about it, I will just be gushing, which would be obnoxious. I will suffice to say that the actors do an incredibly good job, and that the emotional intensity is at times incredibly high, but never overwrought.

The desire of this play is not to be directly activist or political; it simply tells a very honest, personal story. Every character is sincerely well-intentioned, but those intentions translate into very different actions. Depending on who you are, you will interpret those actions and characters in different ways. But no matter what, you will feel something. And if you refuse to think about what you feel, you will hate this play.

Hopefully, this play will be picked up and performed in Provo this summer. If it is, you can rest assured that I will let you know.