Ladder

There’s a lot I think I could say about Annie Baker’s The Aliens. But I wanna talk about ladders.

This is part of one of the monologues in the play. This character, KJ, has just been talking about how when he was a little boy, he went through a phase where he continually repeated the word ¨ladder.¨

And finally one night my mom got into bed with me and she was like: you can say it for as long and as loud as you want and I’ll hold your hand the whole time.

And I was like: okay.

And then I just went:

And then he says the word ¨ladder.¨ 92 times.

At that point, there is a stage direction reading ¨he has begun to cry by this point.¨

The he says ¨ladder¨ 35 more times. Then,

(a pause)

And then I stopped.

And his very next line after this monologue is the delivery of terrible news.. Immediately after this speech, this character, this complicated, chaotic, lost character has to tell someone he cares about that something horrible has happened.

And there’s not a lot of direction for the actor here. But Baker tells the actor when to cry and she formats these words that are all the same word in a very specific way and it is clear, knowing what has happened and when you see what happens next, that every single one of those ladders is there for a reason. And I think that must be an amazing journey for the actor playing KJ to go on: finding the meaning in each and every one of one hundred and twenty-seven ladders.

Because it’s clear that KJ has a lot he wants to say but doesn’t know how to say, and to see somebody do that, start screaming and sobbing out everything he wants to communicate using one word because there is no other way for him to say it… it’s gotta be incredible. I don’t know why the word is ladder (though it’s pretty clear that KJ hasn’t done a lot of climbing in his life). I don’t know how I would read this monologue. But I do know, beyond the shadow of a doubt that, it’s brilliant.