Jordan Palmer (left), Jay Eddy (center), Zach Fontanez (right); Photo by Scornavacca Photography.
Presented by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
Written, composed, and performed by Jay Eddy
Directed by Sam Plattus
Featuring the talents of Zach Fontanez and Jordan Palmer
March 21 – April 6, 2024
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
949 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
Critique by Kitty Drexel
Content Transparency: This performance explores healing after trauma and contains themes of sexual violence, childhood sexual abuse, suicide, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Production features live electronic music (earplugs are available). For further details on topics mentioned, click here.
BOSTON, Mass. — Driving in Circles is a “solo-ish” musical with a killer backup band (Zach Fontanez and Jordan Palmer). Jill (Jay Eddy) is a young person bearing the psychological burden of shameful secrets. We watch Jill grow up into a whip-smart young adult with an agile, curious mind and severe mental health problems. We watch Jill navigate high school, college, and adulthood without executive functioning skills to an electro-rock beat.
This is a show about the ravaging toll trauma takes on a body, psychological healing, and finding your true family. The content warnings above are accurate, and audience members should know that Eddy, Plattus, and the band do their darndest to protect survivors in the audience.
Eddy is a talented storyteller with an optimistic voice. They deftly wield a microphone and jaunt across the stage with deer-like ease. We want Jill to find peace and rest. So, when she eventually does, we are genuinely happy for her.
Zach Fontanez and Jordan Palmer are sympathetic band members. They have their minds and bodies in the show. It’s good to see bandmates engage in real-time with a protagonist’s story as more than instrumentalists at a gig.
Jay Eddy’s folktronica musical forgoes describing the main character Jill’s childhood abuse. Jill tells us it’s none of our business what happened, how, and by whom. Jill/Eddy is right. It is time for all audiences (and producers) to realize they aren’t owed the story of a female protagonist’s abuse.
Driving in Circles is a musical about healing. Jill shouldn’t have to relive their trauma when their healing is the reason for the musical’s creation. Our empathy shouldn’t require convincing. We’re already suspending our disbelief to be in the audience. We can suspend it more for compassion’s sake.
This show is similar to Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die (2011). WGD is also a one-woman band with a backup band telling semi-autobiographical stories with a narrative arc that explores the depths of the human psyche. We’re Gonna Die is sad and hopeful like Driving in Circles. If you like one, you may like the other.
Driving in Circles is loud. A wee note on the front page of the playbill notifies the audience that earplugs are available at the box office. Blink and you’ll miss it. Please announce the availability of earplugs so patrons are aware. Driving in Circles is good, but it’s not “irreparable hearing loss” good.
At a turning point in the musical, Jill (Eddy) speaks to another young woman who says, “Every girl has a story like this. Every. Single. One.”
I know I do. I have several stories like Jill’s. And, thanks to Eddy’s compassionate exclusion of descriptions of her abuse, I wasn’t violently catapulted into a PTSD episode. My mind stayed in the room.
I am not special. Many people across the gender spectrum have survived abuse. We share our stories so we can heal together, dismantle shame, and, hopefully, prevent harm from occurring in the future. Finding community shouldn’t require reliving our trauma. I hope that the right community members find Driving in Circles, and they experience the healing they need.
UPDATE 4/1/24: This critic misunderstood the family dynamic’s of Jill’s story. We wrongly labeled the household as “abusive.” The offending statement is removed. We humbly apologize for the harm this caused.
