Fires in the Mirror

I found the play "Fires in the Mirror" to be extremely thought provoking and gave me a new perspective on the Crown Heights crisis. It took me awhile to really get into the play, but overall it was enjoyable. The use of interviews for this show I believe was genius. It truly shows exactly how each person felt and perceived the situation. It was as if I was seeing the same event happen through many different peoples eyes. I found the structure of the play to be very interesting, but at times confusing. For example, at the start of the play I was extremely confused as to what was going on and who exactly was being interviewed. At certain points I felt as if I had grasped what the play writer was trying to convey, but then found myself lost again. The headings gave me some guidance, but it really all came together when I began to read the monologues following the “Crown Heights, Brooklyn, August 1991” heading. While reading, I wondered why the writer ordered the play in this way, and if there was another message I was missing that was expressed through the sequence of these interviews. After concluding the play I had a greater understanding of the relevance of the interviews in the beginning, and how they contributed to the overall message. They set the tone of who lived in this neighborhood, how they identified themselves and the rising tension that would eventually explode into a crisis.