Agnes White is a lonely 44-year-old alcoholic, drug-addicted waiter living in an Oklahoma motel room. Her abusive, violent exhusband has recently been let out of the slammer and wants to pick up where they left off before he was sent up. Agnes’s friend, R.C., introduces her one evening to Peter Evans, a Gulf War veteran to whom
Agnes finds herself taking a shine. He moves in with her, more or less.
There’s something odd about Peter. Lacking in social graces, he is unusually suspicious, well-read, and smart. The first sign we see of his potential paranoia is when they hear a cricket in the room and decide it must be hiding in the smoke alarm. Agnes asks Peter to take the alarm apart to find and release the cricket. “They’re dangerous,”
Peter …show more content…
It seems preposterous that anyone like Peter could be the target of any such experiment. So we guess that he is deluded partly because of the vast quantities of pharmaceuticals he ingests, and possibly also because of some form of post-traumatic stress disorder he may be suffering from since his military days.
Letts is clever in building the suspense. First, the setting a stifling, mind-numbingly dull, closed-in motel room is perfect. It’s ugly, detached from the outside world, and completely impersonal. Then there’s Agnes’s sleazy ex-husband, Jerry Goss, who shows up to abuse her and threaten Peter while he’s at it. Peter suggests Agnes get a gun to protect herself, not only from Goss but from other nameless threats.
“People can do things to you, things you don’t even know about. . . .
They try to control you. They try to force you to act a certain way.
They can drive you crazy, too. . . . I shouldn’t talk about it. I don’t know if it’s safe or not” Peter’s pronouncements and actions grow increasingly bizarre. He turns the motel room into a Raid factory, with flypaper and heavy-duty insecticides in industrial supply. He tells Agnes that the
Agnes finds herself taking a shine. He moves in with her, more or less.
There’s something odd about Peter. Lacking in social graces, he is unusually suspicious, well-read, and smart. The first sign we see of his potential paranoia is when they hear a cricket in the room and decide it must be hiding in the smoke alarm. Agnes asks Peter to take the alarm apart to find and release the cricket. “They’re dangerous,”
Peter …show more content…
It seems preposterous that anyone like Peter could be the target of any such experiment. So we guess that he is deluded partly because of the vast quantities of pharmaceuticals he ingests, and possibly also because of some form of post-traumatic stress disorder he may be suffering from since his military days.
Letts is clever in building the suspense. First, the setting a stifling, mind-numbingly dull, closed-in motel room is perfect. It’s ugly, detached from the outside world, and completely impersonal. Then there’s Agnes’s sleazy ex-husband, Jerry Goss, who shows up to abuse her and threaten Peter while he’s at it. Peter suggests Agnes get a gun to protect herself, not only from Goss but from other nameless threats.
“People can do things to you, things you don’t even know about. . . .
They try to control you. They try to force you to act a certain way.
They can drive you crazy, too. . . . I shouldn’t talk about it. I don’t know if it’s safe or not” Peter’s pronouncements and actions grow increasingly bizarre. He turns the motel room into a Raid factory, with flypaper and heavy-duty insecticides in industrial supply. He tells Agnes that the