Edited Waiting Room

The Waiting Room Reflection

By: Coli Barth

Have you ever wondered how different your life would be if you lived a hundred years ago? Two hundred? Can you possibly imagine the changes, the differences you would have to face? Well, after reading Lisa Loomers “The Waiting Room”, you won’t have to imagine.

The play we read last week in class, called The Waiting Room, by Lisa Loomer, was a comical, yet deep story of three women as they are viewed through the changing times. This satire had numerous key messages throughout, and used the quirkiness of its characters to show them. For example, an important message it imparted was that beauty was inside of you, not only on the outside. This was showed by Wanda, who finally realized this at the end of the play after being told she had cancer and having surgery to remove the tumors. She finds this out as she is telling a story to Forgiveness from Heaven. And speaking of Forgiveness, she herself finds a way to free herself from the bonds of "beauty" by the end of the play. We are not sure whether she simply falls asleep or dies, but I think she really does die, because her freedom is so complete. And finally, Victoria, the "tightly corseted Victorian Woman", who was bound by her proper ideals, finally frees herself from the clutches of both her husband, and her era’s beliefs of propriety. Simply by convincing her husband that she can read Freud is something huge for her, because before she had been so ashamed by it. But at the same time, even this came at a price. And this price was her uterus, because she finally agreed with her husband that it was what was causing her hysteria.

Lisa Loomer says a lot in her play about today's ideals on beauty, health, perfection, and the roles of men and women in the world. For example, Wanda plays a powerful role in this exemplification. She had breasts implants because she thought that they would make her beautiful to other people, as well as to herself. However, in reality, they just ended up causing her far more pain and suffering, when it came out that they caused her cancer, and she had to have her breast removed. Women sometimes have to sacrifice themselves and their health in order just to achieve today's standards of "beauty". And Victoria is an example of the standards back in the 19th and 18th century. She’s very controlled, very polite, very mindful of her husbands wishes, not really good for anything except taking care of the children and the house. But under it all, she’s high-strung; she wants something better in life, something more exciting. The same can be said about Forgiveness. She is always cheery, so much that she can be considered a bit of an airhead. And the "beautiful" image in her time was small feet. And she feels no regret about her foot binding, not even when she starts loosing her toes. Her case is a lot like Victoria’s, the women are supposed to be meek, and follow whatever their husbands say.

The characters progress quite a lot throughout the play. Wanda finds the true meaning of inner beauty, and starts caring less about what other people think about her appearance, because that's not what really matters. When she first tells Forgiveness the story of Snow White, she says "If you're young and beautiful, some old broads gonna try to knock you off. And if you're ugly or old, you're screwed." (pg 74) And after she comes up with her own story, she seems to realize that you don't need implants or surgery or magic to make yourself beautiful. You're beautiful as you are. So, she progressed a lot. And Forgiveness found a way to escape her bonds, both through Wanda's story, and through her "possible" death. She unwinds herself from her "chains", theoretically. And finally, Victoria finally lets herself be herself, at least in some sense. She doesn't let her husband have control over her completely. Although he still has a lot of power. He still made her have a hysterectomy.

Ken and Larry are a sort of connection to the real world during this whole play. They have normal modern day problems, divorces and cats at the vet. But at the same time, they are a huge part of the plot, because they are arguing over whether a controversial serum that supposedly cures cancer should be allowed or not. They're involved in a very large, very twisted plot. Lisa Loomer is really showing how the pharmaceutical industry really isn't in it to help people, but rather for financial gain. They don't care if something actually works, as long as they get paid well for it.

I think Lisa Loomer concluded her play in the way she did because she wanted the play to end itself. She ended it in a way that gave the reader a chance to make their own ending, however they wanted. You could figure out whether forgiveness dies or not, what happens to Wanda, how Victoria fares. I don't think I would change much in the ending, if I was given the chance, Although I would definitely write an third act, just to make it more....fulfilled. I would explain a little more about what happened to Wanda, how she treated her cancer and all. But, overall, I really think this was a satisfactory ending.