Water By The Spoonful

It is also critical to note that in the final scene, each character takes a step toward recovery and healing with the loving support of another character. Although the Ortiz family is at the core of the play’s action, the play also has a lot to say about the surrogate families people create for themselves. The online chat room created by Odessa offers a tightly-knit, family-style support group for people in recovery. The “conversations” between Haikumom, Orangutan, and Chutes&Ladders are loving, warm, and painfully honest at times. They are present with each other through incredibly difficult experiences. Conversely, separation from family causes characters pain. Two characters, Elliot and Orangutan, are raised by parents other than their birth parents. Chutes&Ladders is estranged from his son, presumably because of Chutes&Ladders’ previous substance abuse. Odessa still deals with the pain of losing her daughter and not being forgiven by Elliot. Orangutan is desperate to gain a stronger sense of self through meeting her birth family in Japan. Yaz is separating from her husband’s family through divorce. The play suggests that separation and isolation prolong trauma and pain, and being in relationship and community, no matter how risky and frightening it may be, is necessary for redemption and recovery.