Family Relationships In Paula Vogel's 'The Long Christmas Ride Home'

In The Long Christmas Ride Home, a play by Paula Vogel, a family deals with the difficulty and consequences of family relationships. These family relationships are tested and presented through a play which fuses American and Japanese traditional theatre. Through the utilization of Japanese Bunraku influence, Vogel’s play explores the themes of infidelity, sexual identity, and grief to create an immersive experience into the struggles of this family. The first theme explored by Vogel is infidelity. The father, played by Paul Bisesi, is essentially ‘removed’ from the family, as his focus and desire lies in his mistress Sheila. Where the children are represented by puppets, directly influenced by Japanese Bunraku theatre, the parents are not.

The character Stephan, played by Alex Rosenthal, demonstrates the weight of family disconnection and continuously suffers from the effects of his sexual identity. As a child, he describes himself as watching the boys play sports and not participating. In church, when the priest accidently shows pornographic material, Stephan finds himself fascinated with the eroticism and beauty of the photo. When his dad gifts him a ball for Christmas, he is discouraged and would rather wear the bracelet his sister was gifted instead. The sexual identity struggle of Stephan displays the divided and broken relationship with his parents, as they never truly understand him. In adulthood, his sexual struggle ends up being his demise as he dies through the contraction of aids. The influence of Japanese theatre is present through the evolution of Stephan’s sexual identity. While contracting the disease, the use of shadow play and shadow puppets is utilized. A dancing figure appears to Stephan in traditional white Kumidori makeup. Likewise, Stephen's sister, Claire, played by Julie Murtha, struggles with her sexual identity being that she is a lesbian. Claire also struggles with infidelity as she witnesses her presumed lover having an affair. This scene similarly demonstrates the influence of Japanese theatre as shadow movement depicts the sexual