Water by the Spoonful: 불협화음이 만들어내는 변주곡

Water by the Spoonful: the harmony of the two dissonant worlds

Water by the Spoonful (2011) is the second play in the trilogy written by Quiara Alegría Hudes, along with Elliot, a Soldier’s Fugue (2007) and The Happiest Song Plays Last (2013). The playwright explains the play as “an imaginative play about the search for meaning by a returning Iraq war veteran.” For the purpose, Hudes divides the stage into the two different worlds: reality and online space. The world of reality is centered on Elliott, an Iraq war veteran who suffers from trauma caused not only by the war experience but also by his unhappy early childhood. Likewise, the online space administered by Odessa is filled with social outcasts who try to escape from drug addiction. Still, the two different worlds of this play are common by the fact that they pursue the goal of healing by achieving harmony through dissonance, as John Coltrane’s song, A Love Supreme suggests.