If Cherries Could Talk

This was a piece I had been wanting to write for a while, but never had the courage to do so. With a story that tackles the issue of emotional abuse, many challenges come with that. For starters, there was the issue of writing an abusive male character who isn’t just one dimensional. You could easily see a play about abuse, and watch a male character be manipulative and flawed for the duration of the show… but what does that leave you with? I needed the audience to see the good in this character, and to leave with the knowledge that, yes, he is an abuser, but I wanted them to almost sympathize with him. I wanted to leave them asking the tough questions like “Why is he like this?”, or “What is his family like?”, and even, “Is he a good person deep down and just a teenager who is young and stupid?”. Pondering these questions after the fact is what makes a play worth watching. Art should always leave us questioning and deeply thinking about our lives as the flawed individuals that we all are, whether we like it or not.