Bright Half Life by Tanya Barfield

Bright Half Life Reviews

• 
  Leigh Anne

  Quantum physics: a love story.
  
  By fits and starts, jumping back and forth on their timeline, we learn how Vicky and Erica met, fell in love, got married, had children, got divorced, and rekindled their friendship. Because we know how the marriage ends two decades after it begins, jumps to events closer to the beginning of the relationship take on an added poignancy, because you know the sweetness doesn't last. And yet, as the very last moment of the play implies, the relationship wasn't a failure, because it existed, and was a good thing. By treating a relationship as if it were a series of waves and particles, as opposed to one discrete timeline, Barfield has created a nuanced portrait of a love in all its complications.
  
  And things are quite complicated for Vicky and Erica. Vicky is a woman of color and Erica is white. When they first meet, Vicky is Erica's boss. Vicky's family is very traditional and doesn't know she's queer. Erica is somewhat scattered and doesn't really know what she wants from life, while Vicky is focused on smashing all the glass ceilings evar. These differences lead to killer dialogues that create rifts, cement over them, and crack them open again as time goes by.
  
  From a staging pov, Barfield has created quite a challenge for a director, and it will take a gifted, experienced one to fully bring her vision to life. To open up casting, Barfield has written certain passages a few different ways, to allow for Vicky being cast as African American, Latina, or Asian American. This preserves one of the play's central themes while allowing a director to cast the best actress for the part without reservation. Libraries with significant collections of plays will want to include this as an example of the creative, inclusive work going on in 21st-century drama, but the work is most suitable for medium-to-large collections in urban areas. Enthusiastically recommended.
• 
  Zuzka Jakúbková

  One hour play of birth and dissolution of relationship.
  
  The play is very raw - essentially no set, no props and very frequent time-jumps. Two leading characters provide rich and layered material for any actresses playing them.
• 
  Daniel

  Inoffensive, intimate portrayal of a relationship that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Some moments of real poignancy.
• 
  Greg Bem

  A delightful play to perform, despite some of the inconsistencies in formatting. Reminded me a lot of Eternal Sunshine with its loops and flashbacks.
• 
  charlotte ❀⑅*⳾

  this is my second time reading this play and I literally love it so much
• 
  Meggie Ferguson

  this was sad
• 
  leah ♖

  why am i about to cry in a public space
• 
  Ella Hall

  A really lovely portrayal of a queer love story that is refreshing in the fact that it's not centered around trauma. Interesting arrangement of time and the story as well.
• 
  Eve Jones

  i will be thinking about this play forever and idk if i like that
• 
  fink

  this was hard to rate bc it was OUCH to read so that’s good but also formatting was so confusing. i’m sure it’s better staged
• 
  Doug

  I really enjoyed Ms. Barfield's 'The Call' (5 stars from me for that one), but this just seems slight and a bit disjointed (intentionally), at least in just reading the script. It surely plays better than it reads, but I came away with a 'meh' reaction.
• 
  Rebecca Russo

  I like the structure of this play and how we are constantly changing timelines. There are also 2 characters in the whole play and I really loved how we got to see their relationship from start to finish and everything in between.