Earshot Essay, Research Paper

Earshot

In Morris Panych?s ?Earshot?, we observe the consequences of heightened hearing. After seeing this one-man play, I am thankful that I have normal hearing. The character known as Doyle played by Kurt Johnson has extra sensory hearing, influenced by every sound existing around him. Imagine this, the magnification of an ant walking across the floor coupled with hearing your own blood coursing through your veins, and on top of that, you can hear your neighbors? breathing through the walls of your apartment. The magnification is not Doyle?s only problem here. Combine all these sounds together on an ongoing basis and you have sensory overload. Doyle?s hypersensitive hearing is a curse not a gift. The curse challenges Doyle?s sensitivity and we observe this in his one-sided conversations with the tenants in his apartment building.

The play takes place in his apartment. In the opening scene, Doyle strips down to his underwear and a torn T-shirt. His apartment reflects the confusion and conflict that is going on in his head. The tattered couch the unmade bed and newspapers piled so high one would suspect have been there for two years. The use of the same teabag repeatedly, gives some insight to his character, which tells us he neglects taking care of himself.

One be one, Doyle introduces us to the tenants of his building in which he has one-sided conversations. Johnson does a believable job here with convincing us that he is carrying a on a two-sided conversation. There are moments when you are lost in his one-sided bantering, and you feel as if he is speaking directly to you. Through the bantering, we learn about the different tenants and their lives as he interprets them.

Doyle shows no empathy for the old lady next door in fact, he refers to her as the ?demented old lady?. Even though, she is continually roaming her apartment looking for her dead husband, Doyle shows no compassion. Later, at the end of the play he does redeem himself, he finally shows his feelings, and runs to her rescue. Then there is the writer upstairs, who is wheelchair bound and Doyle takes great pleasure in the fact that he receives literary rejection notices. Doyle colorfully describes in detail the writer?s reaction to the letter as well as his drinking habits.

The cheery whistler down stairs has the capabilities of pushing Doyle beyond his limits, in fact; the only person he shows any regard for is Valerie, the young single girl next door who goes out night after night and can never find her keys. Doyle believes he is in love with her, and Doyle has this elaborate plan to kill himself. He writes Valerie a letter then buys a gun, but when he pulls the trigger, the whistler steals his glory. The writer is his nemesis and Valerie gets the guy.

Doyle?s character is an overly sensitive person with this hypersensitive hearing which inhibits him from looking beyond self. Johnson portrays this very well and is extremely convincing when it comes expressing Doyle?s frustration with his situation.

Earshot is an appropriate title for this play, and I was surprisingly entertained for one hour and fifteen minutes with a range of different emotions from sadness to mania. At times Johnson is all over the stage with his portrayal of Doyle?s character exhibiting mania.

I felt the play lacked a strong ending due to all the conflict going on in Doyle?s life. There was no resolve.