WELCOME TO THE DRAMATURGICAL CASEBOOK FOR
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU
THIS PRODUCTION CLOSED IN NOVEMBER 2013.
You Can't Take It With You was first produced in 1936. It can be difficult, considering that fact, to understand why it is relevant today. What can it do for 2013 audiences, if anything?
It's an important question to ask, even if it's difficult to answer. There is one obvious parallel between our current era and 1936: the United States is again facing financial difficulties (although not on the same scale as the Great Depression of the 1930s) and a bought of cynicism runs rampant. On Carnegie Mellon's campus, students are known for being work-a-holics who don't necessarily enjoy the work that they do, but see it as necessary--necessary to get a good job, to pass a class, to have a successful life, to appease their parents. I think the message that You Can't Take It With You preaches is one that this campus needs to hear once in a while. It's okay to do something because it makes you happy. It's okay to not do something that makes you miserable.
This production is part of Carnegie Mellon's Centennial, All-American season, and You Can't Take It With You does have a place in the American theatre canon as a pure, well-crafted example of early American comedies. And it is essentially American. The Original Production section of this website features an article from the New York Times that reports on a failed production of this show in London, and talks about the quintessentially American nature of the show. I wonder, can we still look at this play and see it's American-ness as something essential, and not just historical? Can we look at it as the foundation of 1950s American sitcoms? Is too much of a stretch to compare the wacky Sycamore family to the dysfunctional and hilarious Bluth family of Arrested Development? Or to current sitcom families from comedies like Modern Family or The Middle? I don't think so. I think the crazy cast of characters, the "normal" daughter archetype, and the "meet the parents" plot are all tropes that American audiences recognize, and that are present even in this stage comedy from nearly eighty years ago. One of the wonderful things about You Can't Take It With You is how recognizable these characters are, and--despite their exuberance and exaggerated qualities--how genuine.
You Can't Take It With You was first produced in 1936. It can be difficult, considering that fact, to understand why it is relevant today. What can it do for 2013 audiences, if anything?
It's an important question to ask, even if it's difficult to answer. There is one obvious parallel between our current era and 1936: the United States is again facing financial difficulties (although not on the same scale as the Great Depression of the 1930s) and a bought of cynicism runs rampant. On Carnegie Mellon's campus, students are known for being work-a-holics who don't necessarily enjoy the work that they do, but see it as necessary--necessary to get a good job, to pass a class, to have a successful life, to appease their parents. I think the message that You Can't Take It With You preaches is one that this campus needs to hear once in a while. It's okay to do something because it makes you happy. It's okay to not do something that makes you miserable.
This production is part of Carnegie Mellon's Centennial, All-American season, and You Can't Take It With You does have a place in the American theatre canon as a pure, well-crafted example of early American comedies. And it is essentially American. The Original Production section of this website features an article from the New York Times that reports on a failed production of this show in London, and talks about the quintessentially American nature of the show. I wonder, can we still look at this play and see it's American-ness as something essential, and not just historical? Can we look at it as the foundation of 1950s American sitcoms? Is too much of a stretch to compare the wacky Sycamore family to the dysfunctional and hilarious Bluth family of Arrested Development? Or to current sitcom families from comedies like Modern Family or The Middle? I don't think so. I think the crazy cast of characters, the "normal" daughter archetype, and the "meet the parents" plot are all tropes that American audiences recognize, and that are present even in this stage comedy from nearly eighty years ago. One of the wonderful things about You Can't Take It With You is how recognizable these characters are, and--despite their exuberance and exaggerated qualities--how genuine.