Analysis Of The Play: A Man Of No Importance

A Man of No Importance is a play dedicated to showing that while we are of no importance to society as a whole, we are important to those who are closest to us. One should never keep their true selves from the truth. The book written by Terrence McNally shows the audience a very real struggle of those that are a bit peculiar in today’s society as well as the past. They lyrics by Lynn Ahrens will captivate the listener. No matter which scene you sit in you can relate in some fashion to the struggle of each of these characters. At the end there is only one thing in this world that is everlasting and supportive and that’s love. The setting of this play is what appears to be a 50’s, 60’s era in Dublin, Ireland. Ireland is portrayed as …show more content…
He is clearly a gay man living in an Orthodox Catholic community, which would be life altering to say the least. The church basically owns the minds of the community and dictates almost entirely what they should believe. If that belief is different than that of the church, they will need to be “cleansed” of the evil within. This is tough for anyone with whom knows their true self, but can’t express their true self. Alfie has a commitment to his church and he doesn’t seek to turn against it, just a hope they will accept him. He must fight the church in a sense to become his true self and this in turn fights his community. He will, and does, struggle with society after they find out who he truly is. His dearest friends do come to his aid and support after the big reveal. Baldy’s experience with his marriage wouldn’t be frowned upon in the church as much as Alfie’s. However, Baldy receives sideways looks constantly when he was out with his wife. Baldy never cared because truthfully, Love always wins and it wins out for both of them in the …show more content…
I realized they were very dated in their attire and I figured as much for the play. When the first women stepped out their hair gave me a clear indication we were transported to the late 50’s early 60’s. This is a unique time from a perspective because many things were in progress for the world at this time. While their accents weren’t American, but Irish, the U.S. had a huge influence around the world. It was very easy to feel the overwhelming attachment the community had to the Catholic Church. As the play evolved, they essentially had to lie their way into the Church’s theater hall. The Church has such direct influence on what the community as a whole were exposed to really shows how dated this era of time