The Boys Next Door

The Boys Next Door was a creative play written by Tom Griffin. The other day in class we went outside in our small groups and read some sections from Act one. Our group had a lot of fun with the whole experience and each of us put in the effort to act out the scenes to the fullest. However, I think I got the same I did from doing that experience outside than when I read the first act by myself. Plays are an easier thing for me to comprehend and relate with than something like a poem, where that can bring up more questions than answers.

There were some parts in the play where I thought it was pretty comical and parts in the play where I felt bad for the characters in the play. I really enjoyed the part where they thought they had a rat in the house and they killed it and still thought that it was a rat. I could see people that are not mentally challenged dealing with that situation the same way, so I thought it was pretty funny. Therefore, the neighbors could never figure out what happened to the hamster that they lost, because the boys next door did not realize they had killed a hamster and not a rat. I felt bad for what ended up happening to Barry near the end of the play. He was talking so highly of his father throughout the play and then when he got to see him for that short time it became an awkward and scary moment for Barry.

This play reminded me of when I used to be a camp counselor and one of the kids in my group was mentally challenged. His name was Frankie and he loved sponge bob and video games. Whenever I felt like a situation could get bad I would sometimes just pull Frankie aside and talk to him about sponge bob or some video game. Barry's father did not take the time to figure out what Barry was interested in so he would just send him chocolate. That just goes to show that his father did not show any care toward Barry and did not give much time for them to enhance their relationship with each other. That part of the play really stuck out to me and just left me with a thought that we need to show care to everyone no matter if they have a handicap or not.