As The Hatchet’s cartoonist and a recovering “theater kid,” I use the arts to make sense of current events. Both theater and cartoons give audiences and their creators a chance to connect with what’s going on in the world by breaking down and critiquing government and social action. The musical “Fun Home”— which GW’s Generic Theater Company performed at the West Hall Blackbox Theatre from April 17 to 19 — brought my beloved cartoons to the stage. The fusion reminded me how essential it is to support to local arts at a time when President Donald Trump’s anti-diversity, equity and inclusion policies are threatening their survival.
“Fun Home” was originally published by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in 2006. In the memoir, Bechdel reflects on her relationship with her father, Bruce, a gay man who she believed committed suicide after he was hit by a truck four months after Alison came out as a lesbian. It’s not exactly a plot you expect to see represented in comic books or musical theatre, but those mediums are why it works so well. There’s a saying in theater: When the emotions are too strong for words, you sing, and when they’re too strong for singing, you dance. As a cartoonist, I draw what is too much for words.
I read “Fun Home” for the first time in my first year of high school after an English class where my teacher said its sexual content made it was one of the most banned books in America. Comics are more likely to be banned than your “average” book: People looking to ban books don’t actually want to read them, so instead they take pictures out of context. The lesson inspired me to check it out from the library for the first of many times. The book was inconceivably descriptive with both its writing and illustrations. Every page was a masterpiece that I would’ve taped to my bedroom wall if it weren’t such a personal story. Through reading, I understood Alison’s struggle of not knowing if her self-acceptance led to her father’s death. If this comic had been banned from my library, that would never have happened.
On April 18, I finally got a chance to see “Fun Home” live, thanks to GW’s Generic Theater Company. The musical drew a shocking amount of laughs for a show where the audience is told early on that Bruce Bechdel will commit suicide. Topics that otherwise depress you become, well, “comic.” That’s the cartooning process in live action, where whatever puzzles you becomes a panel. You start to understand that the story you’re hearing affects real people. That empathy becomes political when you remember how closely related the story you’re seeing is to the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.
“Fun Home” is a perfect reflection of the job of artists — especially political cartoonists — to display the tragic as a farce. As Bruce cheats on Alison’s mother, Helen, with his former student turned babysitter, Roy, Alison points out that it is reminiscent of a “1950’s lesbian pulp novel.” Emphasizing absurdity is all the more important now, when it seems like every headline was taken straight from “South Park.” After the United States reelected Trump, I couldn’t stop thinking about how this would affect the country until I made a cartoon out of it. It’s a better option than sitting around and feeling helpless. It’s easier to digest something when you laugh instead of cry, and the arts are how people do that.
The real tragedy of “Fun Home” is stated aloud as Alison attempts to caption a cartoon in the first ten minutes of the show: “My dad and I were exactly alike … my dad and I were nothing alike.” They were queer artists: father and daughter. They never spoke about the very things that should have bonded them. Anyone who sees themself in Alison is thereby forced to realize that they also see themself in Bruce. It gets harder to stomach as the minutes go on. Without the humor and music that makes “Fun Home” art instead of just words on the page of a book or script, it would probably be even harder to get through. “Fun Home,” like other musicals and cartoons, turns what is otherwise a grim reality into something beautiful, if controversial. Nobody wants to relate to Bruce as he lures a child into his car and gives him a beer. “Fun Home” forces you to think of flawed people as people nonetheless.
In the era of identity politics, everyone should embrace “flying away” from what’s comfortable towards what we need to learn. The arts are how we do that. Whether it’s comics, musicals or any old book, art is how we remember others are alive as well, and what we do affects them.
I didn’t know when I was going to start crying during my first viewing of “Fun Home,” just that it was inevitable. It happened when Bruce, in a letter to Alison discussing her coming out, tells her that one day she’ll realize “some things just aren’t worth it.” I’m often left wondering these days if the arts are worth it. The Trump administration turns what they deem obscene into their targets, ranging from trying to deport student protesters to altering the K-12 curriculum to be more “patriotic.” We, as students, should know this is proof that the arts are worth it now more than ever. The people in power don’t want you to relate to the people they’re targeting because then we’ll see it could just as easily be us next. “Fun Home” reminded me just how vital the arts are in portraying that.
Caroline Morrelli, a first-year majoring in political science and minoring in history, is the staff cartoonist.
