Carl the Second

            I was given the opportunity to add a little culture to my life, and extra credit in my English class by attending a play at Thomas Nelson Community College.  I found myself being pleasantly entertained and actually laughing out loud throughout the show.  The play was a satirical comedy about a man named Carl and his views about his love interests while walking through this thing we call life.

            Introducing the main character to the audience, we find Carl at work in a small bookstore.  He is an avid reader and tends to live his life through his choice of books, and applying certain quotes and quips from his readings into his love life.  He is always finding faults within himself that have him feeling as if he is playing second to any of his love interests in his life.  During his childhood, feeling inferior to his older brother’s all-star status in school and at home, he finds himself passing on opportunities to put his best foot forward, and lets other people take the lead role in most of his endeavors all through is childhood, placing himself on that road of feeling second to everyone that enters his life.

            Carl's inferiority complex is validated time and time again in his relationships with women.  He's the guy that women turn to when they are feeling down.  Carl provides that non-threatening, supportive environment that gives them the strength they need to heal their self-image.  Then each of the women go back to their former relationships, leaving Carl to ponder his lot in life as a second, a reject, the one not good enough. 

            When Christine arrives on the scene and Carl actually begins to think that he may be able to overcome his fate and find happiness after all.  But then he found out about Lance.  Lance was the epitome of everything that Carl wasn't.  Lance was incredibly handsome, successful and he had been engaged to Christine for three years.  After this discovery, Carl knew that it was only a matter of time before Christine realized, as all the others had, that her former lover was the love of her life.  So he decided to orchestrate his own demise by challenging Lance's softball team to a match that would provide a backdrop for the ultimate rejection by Christine. 

            The play ends with Carl in the bookstore after the game pondering his thoughts about his life with a few literary characters that, like Carl, were always second.  With the light dimming on the stage you could hear the faint knocking at the door and Christine calling out for Carl to answer the door, leaving the audience to wonder in their own minds if Carl would pass on the opportunity for true love.

            While driving home that evening after the play I found myself thinking how smooth the production went off without a hitch.  From the opening line on, to the atmosphere, and attitude on stage, there was only one little mistake that I could recall and it seems so minor now looking back I would recommend to anyone looking for a little culture added to there life that attending a production by the TNCC players they would find themselves enjoying the play and walking away happy they decided to attend.