Book Review- "These Days"

“These Days” is another play by local playwright, Erica Hoye. I love her writing style. This play was a bit longer than “Escaping the Underworld”, and was very good as well. The script looked at the relationship between Kelly, a freshman in college, and her professor, Nathan. As she finds she needs help with studying, she develops a relationship with him and the matter of keeping their relationship exciting, while keeping it secret is tested. The characters were very dynamic, with Nathan, the laid-back professor, Kelly, the naive, book-smart freshman, Ian, the stereotypical college boy, and Anna, the sweet girl friend of Nathan. The script holds a sense of reality to it, given that adultery is something that is starting to become more relevant in the movies and in television shows.

The script jumps around a lot from past to present and from one relationship to another. I liked how the opening scene is set at the airport, where Nathan and Kelly bump into each other. This unexpected meeting is set in the present and is the first time that Kelly and Nathan have seen each other for five years. The way the characters act towards each other in this opening scene was a day and night difference to the way they interact when the second scene jumps to their first meeting, five years earlier in Professor Noon's office. This was very cool to experience as a reader, because it really gives you a feel for the innocence that Kelly has and how much this major event that happens in the pages to come effects her.

The only criticism would be that the relationship between Ian and Kelly wasn't really addressed as much as it could have been. At the end of the play, you are left with a sense that they have a relationship or that there is a flame there, but it isn't really addressed. The other thing is that Kelly never discusses with anyone the fact that she is uncomfortable with the relationship that her and Professor Noon (Nathan), have developed. This becomes a problem in the end, so a bit more of the uncomfortable interaction, would have made this point clearer. As stated earlier, this was a great script and is a great read.