Program note tales of the lost formicans

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TALES OF THE LOST FORMICANS

PRESS KIT

Director’s Program Note:
PROGRAM NOTE

TALES OF THE LOST FORMICANS

(Terry Converse)
“Take time to laugh - it is the music of the soul.”

From an old English prayer

May the Farce be with you!
Want to be healthier and happier? No problem—simply take the advice of the Old Testament proverb: “a merry heart doeth good like medicine.” Could the Good Book be any clearer? Says the Bible: Laughing is good for our health, and shame on you if you don’t heed the literal truth of the Bible! But just in case you don’t, surely you’ll be swayed by the fact that modern science also validates that a good laugh may actually help fend off heart attacks and strokes. Even at our World Class, Face to Face University, besot once again by a barrage of bad budget cuts, tonight’s performance is a bargain among draconian bargains because it will very likely make you healthier and happier.
But at first glance, much of Constance Congdon’s play would seem to be no laughing matter; death, divorce, rebellious children, and Alzheimer’s disease are hardly uplifting, highly funny topics. Congdon’s dark comedy is a disturbing commentary on the loss of meaning in modern American suburban life, all seen through the ironic observations of extraterrestrial watchers. Tales of the Lost Formicans is set in a far future alien world in order to examine the human effects of alienation and loss. Congdon seems to be telling us that the more serious the calamity, the more desperate the need there is for laughter. Humor helps Condon’s characters get through their day, and it helps us—her audience—to identify and empathize with the pain of her characters. Humor intensifies the empathy, and keeps her comic creations from becoming caricatures. Part dream play, part sci-fi farce, Congdon’s imaginative, highly theatrical piece rests on the premise that space aliens are observing and interpreting suburban life through the lens of their own culture.
Congdon’s catalyst for telling her story is divorce. The humans whom the aliens observe are “Formicans” — as in “users of Formica,” and just as the play begins one of the “formicans” suddenly becomes divorced. According to recent statistics, half of all marriages in America end in divorce. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the traditional vow “till death do us part,” was possibly taken a little more seriously; our culture, so it seems, has lost faith in the forever. Once upon a time—a Norman Rockwell time, perhaps—love relationships were meant to last a little bit longer than a series of one night stands. For Congdon, today’s world of divorce and isolation is best dramatized in a dream-like bombardment of multiple perspectives, where time and space are fragmented, or as Rod Serling used to remind us in his Twilight Zone “where all possibilities—past, present, and future co-exist.”
Poking fun at Americana is at the core of our production concept. What better way to reinforce Congdon’s science fictional, satirical view of America than by waving as many flags as we can. Glance at the Daggy stage, and it’s flags, flags, everywhere flags! One of President Bush’s favorite buzz images is the American flag—ideally being waved enthusiastically by people ready to send their sons and daughters off to die in the desert for oil. The White House propaganda machine seized on the stirred emotions of Americans following 9/11 to whip up a flag frenzy. That the propaganda was successful is understandable, given our shock and vulnerability. But somehow in the frenzy, America’s moral center has been replaced by flag waving, false piety, and bumper sticker thinking. Our flag has become a commercial image, a mere object somewhat analogous to a plastic Jesus on the dashboard. Our flag needs to be more than the latest pop logo on a T-shirt used to sell someone’s bill of goods; our vision in these hard times needs to be more than ever global, not nationalistic.
Great writing, like great music and art, comes from the heart. It connects on a profoundly personal and deeply emotional level. Congdon has experienced divorce, and she dedicated her play to her father who lost his battle against Alzheimer’s disease. Our familiar world suddenly becomes strange and alien—a topsy-turvy disorientation where home is no longer home, and we feel totally alienated. When things fall apart, life becomes incredibly alienating, and maybe the only rational explanation left to believe is that aliens really are controlling our lives! Our lost “formicans” grapple with the same questions that all great drama poses: Who are we? What is the meaning of our lives? What does the future hold for us? Yes, life hurts, and life alienates, but as Constance Congdon reminds us, humor helps. "Life,” according to Oscar Wilde, “is far too important to be taken seriously."

Blurbs:
Blurb #1:

Tales of the Lost Formicans, by Constance Congdon is an exploration of contemporary suburban America as seen through the eyes of time-traveling space aliens from the future. Hysterically funny, deeply moving, and insightfully revealing, this play walks a fine, fun line between the joys and challenges of our changing world. It runs Thursday through Saturday, April 7,8, 9 and 14, 15, and 16,

Blurb #2:

Originally produced in 1989, Tales of the Lost Formicans presents a portrait of an American family as observed by aliens. Cathy, a working mother recently abandoned by her husband, moves back to her childhood home to pull her life together, expecting stability. But even in the Colorado suburb, everything is unravelling: her best friend is even more confused, her neighbors are seeing saucers overhead, and her father is losing his grip on reality. Congdon imaginatively tells this funny and moving story through the eyes of aliens at work observing and cataloging human behavior -- and in a style that is breakneck and surreal. Tony Kushner in his glowing introduction to this play calls Tales “entirely, unapologetically theatrical, by which I mean that they play the contradiction.”

Blurb #3:

University Theater presents Constance Congdon’s comic drama, Tales of the Lost Formicans. In the play, a group of alien anthropologists tells the story of a woman in her mid-thirties and her family. The production asks whether anthropologists, even those from outer space, can truly remain outside of the cultures they observe.

Blurb #4:

Long ago and far, far away in the future, a group of alien archaeologists speculate about artifacts collected on their explorations from a planet called Earth. Constance Congdon looks with light–hearted affection at family dysfunction, child rearing, paternal care and the battle of the sexes in her wonderful, wistful comedy.

Blurb #5

Narrated by a group of alien archaeologists, Tales of the Lost Formicans follows a suburban family sliding into dysfunction as the patriarch succumbs to Alzheimer’s disease, a daughter moves back home after leaving her husband, and her son runs away and ends up sleeping in shopping malls. Tripping over their own efforts, the family’s search for love parallels the quest of alien visitors to understand our absurd human world.

Blurb #6:

A tragic comedy about the American Dream, Alzheimer’s disease, alien abduction and other subjects too horrible not to laugh at. This is a study of an American family sliding into dysfunction, narrated by a group of alien archaeologists who have recreated our civilization, mostly through all the plastic stuff we left behind.

Blurb #7:

In “Tales of the Lost Formicans” we have another examination...this time by aliens from another time and place. They attempt to explain human behavior based upon the artifacts they discover. Along the way we learn a great deal about love, life, acceptance, and hope. “If not the best new play of recent years, surely this is the most imaginative. Constance Congdon’s brilliant off-Broadway script wryly deflects the story of a man with Alzheimer’s disease into a travel guide to Middle America conducted by aliens.” (William Henry III, Time )This play contains adult content and themes.

Blurb #8

What legacy will humans leave for future anthropologists? How is America to be viewed under the lens of cultural significance? Congdon writes a disturbing commentary on the loss of meaning in modern American suburban life and the chaos that has followed...all through the hilariously ironic observations of a contingent of extraterrestrial watchers!

Press Release Info:
THE FORMICANS ARE COMING! The WSU Theatre Program proudly presents Constance Congdon’s Tales of the Lost Formicans [Jones Theatre – April 7,8,9 & 14, 15, 16, 2005] Congdon dark comedy is an exploration of contemporary suburban America as seen through the eyes of time-traveling space aliens from the future. Hysterically funny, deeply moving, and insightfully revealing, this play walks a fine, fun line between the joys and challenges of our changing world. Part dream play, part sci-fi farce, Congdon’s imaginative, highly theatrical piece rests on the premise that space aliens are observing and interpreting suburban life through the lens of their own culture. Congdon focuses on the lives of a suburban family slowly coming apart at the seams as Jim (Dave Herigstad), the family’s patriarch, is slowly succumbing to the ravages of Alzheimer’s. His daughter, Cathy (Kelsey Gunn), has moved back home after the dissolution of her marriage, uprooting her temperamental teenage son Eric (Patrick Ryan) in the process. Jim’s wife Evelyn (Amee Walden) is left to care for her husband, all the while trying to connect with her daughter and grandson. All of these events are related by the narrators of the story, a group of alien anthropologists, who examine human society from their own perspective. Through their insights and faulty assumptions the aliens offer a fresh and very funny take on human nature.
Tales of the Lost Formicans is the work of Constance Congdon, a 1991-92 Guggenheim Fellow. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship and a Rockefeller Playwriting Award, and she was the first recipient of the Arnold Weissberger Playwriting Award. Tales of the Lost Formicans won the Newsday/Oppenheimer Award for the best new play produced in New York City in 1990. Providing a whimsical look at the idiosyncrasies of human interaction, Tales of the Lost Formicans, offers a unique multi-generational perspective on the reality of the North American family. Incorporating movement and multimedia, this production promises to be a hilarious and thought-provokingfinish to the 2005 theatre season.