#trina latrine

[maybeeatspaghetti]

I bought In Trousers (finally!) and according to the script, Whizzer was Marvin’s first time with a man, which I had never been sure about since it’s not clear in Falsettos whether Marvin’s “meetings in the boys’ latrine” imply a string of strangers (because cruising in public bathrooms is a well-known part of gay history) or is just used as a roundabout way of saying he was cheating on Trina with a man throughout their marriage. 

I feel like, since a lot of details were changed between In Trousers and Falsettos, it could be very likely that Bill Finn just decided to rewrite that bit and imply that Marvin has a history of cruising in public bathrooms for Falsettos instead of his first time being with Whizzer, as written in In Trousers.

[justasoftiesblog]

Some people believe Trina's drink in this and I think it explains alot

I'd like to be a princess on a throne (Trina wants to be loved and incharge)

To have a country I can call my own (She'd like a strong family that she doesn't have to share)

And a king (She'd also like a man who wouldn't leave her)

Who's lusty and requires a fling (She's horny af)

With a female thing (She's being specific because Marvin left for a man)

Great!

Men will be men (Similar to the phrase 'boys will be boys' which is used to let boys get off with idiotic things, indicating she's forgiven him)

Let me turn on the gas (Suicidal?)

I caught them in the den

With Marvin grabbing Whizzer's ass! (Replaying the moment she can't pretend he's straight anumore)

Oh sure, I'm sure, he's sure (She can't even pretend anymore as Marvin is sure he's gay)

He did his best

I mean he meant to be what he was not (Marvin hid his sexuality like most gay men in the 80s to try and have a 'normal' life)

The things he was are things which I forgot

He's a queen

I'm a queen! (Gay slur)

Where is my crown?

I'm breaking down

I'm breaking down! (Repetition shows she's spiralling and is sure of it)

My life is shitty and my kid seems like an idiot to me! (Every parent hates their kid occasionally but can't breakdown infront of them)

I mean that's sick

I mean he's great!

It's me who is the matter (Trina thinks she's a bad mother for thinking this and thinks she's a bad person)

Talking madder than the maddest hatter!

If I repeat one more word, I swear I'll lose my brain!

Ohhh, what else should I explain? (Talking like she's in a psychiatrist office and she feels she must explain herself)

Oh yes it's true!

I can cry on cue!

But so can you (Down playing her achievements - symptom of depression)

I'm breaking down

I'm breaking down!

Down, down! (Spiralling further)

You ask me is it fun to cry over nothing?

It is! (Trina can't control her emotions anymore)

I'm breaking down

Now let's consider what I might do next (She's always followed Marvin's orders and doesn't know what to do now he's gone)

I hate admitting I've become perplexed

I'm bereived

I've cried,

I've shook

I've yelled!

I've heaved

I have been deceived! (She's getting angrier and angrier each line that Marvin lied to her - the lines are also stages of loss)

As enemies go, Whizzer is not so bad

It's just he's so damn happy (She wishes she could be happy)

That it makes me so damn mad!

I wanna hate him, but I really can't

It's like a nightmare how this all proceeds

I hope that Whizzer don't fufill his needs! (She's hoping that if Whizzer doesn't fulfill Marvin's needs sexually and otherwise that Marvin will go back to her - she knows Marvin's mood swings)

Don't is wrong, sing along!

What was the noun

I'm breakin' down

I'm breaking down (Spiralling again)

I'll soon redecorate these stalls!

I'd like some patting in the walls (She'd like to be safe and away from people who can hurt her)

And also pills

I wanna sleep! (She'd like to escape the pain of life - possibly she's been having nightmares)

Sure, things will probably worsen (She knows she can't control everything and it scares her)

But it's not like I'm some healthy person

I've rethought my talks with Marv (Keeps replaying the conversations to see where she's gone wrong)

And one fact does emerge

Oh, I think I like his shrink

So that is why I might turn to drink! (Wants all her problems to be solved)

I'm on the brink of breaking down

I'm breaking down!

Down! Down! (Trina already knows she's having a breakdown but doesn't want to admit this)

I only want to love a man who can love me

Or like me

Or help me

Help me! (Cry for help)

Marvin was never mine!

He took his meetings in the boy's latrine (Gay men in the 80s would meet other men in public bathrooms for sex)

I used to cry (Trina probably tried to bring this up)

He'd make a scene! (Marvin probably deined this for years)

I'd rather die than dry clean Marvin's wedding gown!

I'm breaking down!

I'm breaking down!

It's so upsetting when I found that what's rectangular is round (Gay people were referred to as circles/round as they were seen to be irregular compared to swuares/regtangles)

I mean, it stinks! (She's trying to be discreet and she doesn't want to admit the man she married is gay)

I mean, he's queer (She's gotten angrier that's he's gay and can't hide it)

And me, I'm just a freak who needs it maybe every other week (All she wants is to be seen as 'normal')

I don't know!

I've rethought the fun we had

And one fact does emerge

I played the foolish clown (She feels stupid for not realising earlier that Marvin was gay)

The almost vigin who sings this dirge (Marvin and Trina probably married early to due Trina's pregnancy and they rarely had sex because Marvin didn't like it)

Is on the verge of breaking down! (Doesn't want to admit she's breaking down)

I'm breaking down!

Down, down! (She's spiralled already)

The only thing that's breaking up is my family

The only thing that's breaking up is my family! (She believes it's something she could of possibly prevented)

But me!

I'm breaking down! (She knows she couldn't of stopped this)

[two-time-tony-nominee]

#29 for the ask! as for me, falsettos is dearest to my heart- it had the most emotional impact on me. i love whizzer, but i have to mention that marvin's character development is phenomenal thank you❤️💕

I DIDN’T REALISE I HAD TO COUNT wkdndis

But anyway if I got the wrong question because I counted wrongly, please excuse me/correct me ahaha

29. Favourite female character from a musical?

That’ll have to be Trina!! Her character is so nuanced. In the beginning, she was so afraid of being alone, that even though she probably already knew about what Marvin was up to when he got home late, as evidenced from “He took his meetings in the boy’s latrine” in I’m Breaking Down, she lived in blissful ignorance. But then, she grows strong enough to break apart from that, and finds her own happiness.

She grows, and eventually grows strong enough to love the man who broke up her marriage. She’s so compassionate and strong, and euuhgh I’d write an essay on Falsettos if someone asked me to.

And I totally agree!! Whizzer is probably my favourite character in Falsettos, but you CANNOT discount Marvin’s character growth at all.

[short--insomniacs]

on Marvin and HIV/AIDS

So, I’ve been doing some thinking. It’s a widely held belief that Whizzer gave Marvin HIV-- but what if it was the other way around? Hear me out.

We know that Whizzer “[screws] every morning,” which leads most people to believe that since he was having so much sex. But Marvin, though perhaps subtler, seems like he certainly could’ve been, too. 

Marvin does, admittedly, put a lot of stock in monogamy-- “Whizzer screws too much to see what a joy’s monogamy”-- but that doesn’t mean that Marvin couldn't have experimented. And, for someone who does put stock in monogamy, it’s hypocritical (though, in a way, understandable, because Marvin’s clearly gay) for him to have been cheating on his wife to begin with. Anyway.

 During “What Would I Do?” Marvin tells Whizzer, “you’re the only one my child would allow.” There was a two-year-break between Marvin and Whizzer’s dating, in which he could’ve dated others in an attempt to move on, except Jason didn’t like any of them. (Or maybe there were even men before Whizzer, and Whizzer was just the catalyst.) Jason notes, “don’t make noise, but Daddy’s kissing boys.” It’s entirely possible that Jason could’ve seen Marvin bringing home or kissing several different men, not just Whizzer.  Along with “kissing boys,” Marvin had to break the news to Trina that he had both hepatitis and syphilis, and that “maybe, darling, so do you.”  Considering that syphilis and hepatitis are STDs, it’s clear that he got them from having unprotected sex. Could he have gotten them from Whizzer? That’s a possibility. But look at Whizzer’s face when Marvin says hepatitis:

He’s clearly like, “um, wait, what the fuck??? i did not give that to you, when did that happen???” To me, it seems as though this line is implying that Marvin, too, has been screwing around-- for lack of a better term-- and what’s more, having sex unprotected. Marvin describes the STDs as “something rotten, which appears though now it’s well forgotten.” It could be that Marvin has had a host of viral STDs. Viruses cannot be destroyed by antibiotics. Sometimes, they just run its course and go away on their own. Sometimes, you’re stuck with them. They’re kinda like volcanoes-- they have periods of activity, and then they lie low for a while until there’s another flare-up. Herpes is like this, and hepatitis can be as well. Marvin noting that he has something “which appears though now it’s well forgotten” makes me think that he could’ve gotten some sort of other STD and literally forgotten about it until it flared up again. Trina mentions in “I’m Breaking Down” that Marvin often “took his meetings in the boys’ latrine,” which was an incredibly popular place for men to have sex. Bath houses, which were popular in the 70s and the 80s, were also a prime spot for gay men to go and have largely unprotected sex. (They did, unfortunately, play a big role in the spreading of HIV.) 

HIV/AIDS is an incredibly complicated disease. Though the first known cases of AIDS in the US were in the early 1980s, the HIV virus had been around for a while, and there were cases in the late 1970s.  

I have to make a distinction between HIV and AIDS because they are not the same thing. HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, causes AIDS, the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. People do not die of HIV; they die of AIDS, which is an immensely intense complication of HIV. Remember when I said that some viruses don’t go away? HIV is one of those viruses. It is a chronic condition and can’t be cured. Modern medicine, thank God, has come up with many effective medications to keep the virus from progressing. Moving on. 

HIV is a virus that has something called a latency period-- there can be weeks, months, or even years when you have no symptoms at all. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t still spread the virus. Also, without treatment, HIV can stay latent for about 10 years until it progresses to AIDS.  The initial symptoms of HIV mimic the flu, so most people who were actually infected probably just thought they had the flu. And then, the latency period began, and they didn’t know they had the virus until it had progressed into AIDS. 

Because HIV/AIDS affects the body’s immune system, how long it takes the disease to progress is pretty dependent on the person. But if someone’s immune system is already taxed, then it can be devastating. We know that Whizzer likes to have sex.  We know that he has a lot of sexual partners, and has a lot of unprotected sex. He, like Marvin, probably had his fair share of STDs. But if he’s constantly having sex, and his body is constantly being put through the wringer to fight off so many STDs, his immune system could certainly be weaker than, say, Marvin’s. Marvin contracted the virus before he met Whizzer and given it to him then. Or, in the two years they were separated, Marvin could’ve gotten HIV and then given it to Whizzer after they got back together. Either is plausible. 

The lines that most heavily implies Marvin’s positive HIV status-- “All your life you wanted men/And when you got it up to have them/Who knew it could end your life?-- are again filled with plurals. The men he loved. Whizzer was one, and the most impactful one, but there were others. Others who might’ve very well given Marvin HIV. Marvin mentions that “[he] can’t help but feeling that [he’s] failed” after Whizzer becomes ill. As @upsettoland pointed out to me, when Dr. Charlotte lets Marvin know that the disease spreads, he looks...resigned. He seems almost guilty, like, “I did that. I got him sick.”  Maybe he had a suspicion. And that’s absolutely devastating. 

If you’d like more information on HIV/AIDS, here and here are two amazing sites. GIF credit goes to @racetrackshiggins

[ofpeculiariity-blog]

uhhh conspiracy theories w/ ophie gee time: y’all know trina’s line in im breaking down, “he took his meetings in the boys latrine.” does that mean trina is aware of the marvin & whizzer origin story because uuhhhhhhh i cant unhear or unthink this

[starchildrenofdustand-ashes]

Four Jews in a Room Bitching

The opening song and perhaps most heard of from the musical. With its upbeat tempo, it’s amusing lyrics, it seems as though it’s the most lighthearted song in the musical, which is true to an extent. It serves the purpose of introducing the main characters and as well as sets the tone for the show. It firstly tells us that the four men of the show are Whizzer, Jason, Mendal and Marvin, as well as that Judaism is a part of their lives. Common knowledge is that they are spelling out Jewish stereotypes such as bitching, neurosis and ‘funny funny funny funny’. ......

 Mendel asks “Whadda they do go love?”. This is something that will be explored and answered through their actions s in the play ......

The four men reenact the events of Passover- they mention things like pharaoh as well as the Red Sea parting. I’m not sure if this has any analytical significance,, but if anyone has any theories please message me! .......

 The song then reveals they are ‘manipulating people and we need to know our worst sides aren’t ignored’ - Specifically this seems to pertain to Marvin. Marvin is the most manipulative person in the play- Mendel as a close second- ........... 

“The guilt invested will in time play wisely,” Mendel ’ steals’ Marvins family. Need I say anything else? ..........

‘We do not tippytoe’- they don’t beat around the bush. These men are all very direct. Jason’s very direct and always seems to say what’s on his mind ‘just because you failed as parents,“ is a perfect example. Marvin isn’t much different. He doesn’t hesitate to share his thoughts on things, most specifically in regards to Whizzer. .......

 “The bed” the whole thing about the bed seemed random to me at first,, but a bed is one of the most common places to have sex. All four of these men are extremely sexually driven.  .......

 “Excel in bed” - Whizzer seems to be oozing with sexuality. He’s an openly gay man and he’s completely okay with that. It is rather evident that he sleeps (or has slept) around a lot. “Whizzer screws too much to see joys monogamy’ ........  

“We’re good in bed” (Well, Mendel. Practice does make perfect) –Mendel basically has an orgasm in his chair when Marvin talked about Trina. It seems as though Mendel attractions to Trina are merely sexual and eventually they turn into love. When he proposed to Trina, he rambles about her thighs. Even Trina is rather sexually driven as shown in 'I’m breaking down’ .....

 “Where is the bed?” I think Jason is constantly asking where the bed is as a legitimate question; almost like a child asking his parents about sex. Jason’s whole character is built on a fear of being gay. He has seen what his fathers sexuality has done to his family and the negative impact it had on his life this far. However despite Jason’s fears, it seems evident that the boy is most definitely attracted to women. Nobody can be sure what Marvin was like as a kid; if he had 'desired’ women because it was expected of him. Jason could realize he attracted to men later in his life, but I highly doubt that’s the case. In 'A Miracle of Judaism’ he talks about the girls he is attracted. They are all the sexually driven 'bad girls’ .....

 “We smell in bed” Maybe Marvin says this because all his experience in bed haven’t been enjoyable. He’s been having sex with Trina for god knows how long, and since women aren’t his preference, it can be assumed that it wasn’t fun for him. As far as his meetings in 'the boys latrine’ go, he contracted multiple STI’s sooo, Essentially Marvin’s luck in bed is kinda shitty. ............

 The song finished by calling everyone neurotic- a Jewish Stereotype- and introducing Trina as the 'fifth Jew in the room’.

[aliceinguatemala]

Building

At last I’m up to the build! We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant at 7, as we did each morning and loaded into our vans at 7:30. Generally on Habitat builds when we build houses, the team splits up into two groups to work on two houses. In this case, since we were building only stoves, we split up into three groups. My group included Tom, our only man, Jan, Jackie S. and Kristyna, one of our volunteer coordinators. Kristyna is from the Czech Republic, but she’s been working in Latin America for a few years now. She speaks excellent Spanish and English. I think Tom was very brave to come on a trip with 15 women. He’s held up quite well. Perhaps partly thanks to his feisty daughter, Tinsley, who has apparently been giving him sass since she was small.

We’ve got an interesting group of volunteers and Habitat staff. You may skip over this next part if you like, but I’ll quickly tell you where everyone is from. Jackie S. - Seattle. Jackie B. - north of Toronto. Karen - Bermuda. Rhonda - Bermuda. Karin - Wisconsin. Pam - Philly. Diana - Florida. Laura - South Carolina. Jan - Colorado. Tom - Michigan. Those are the volunteers. And as for staff I already told you about Kristyna. Sandra - Antigua. Beatrice - Chimaltenango, close to Antigua. Mackensie - Iowa. Many of us have been on builds before, though this is my first time on a Healthy Homes build. Rhonda, Tom and Laura have been on builds with Trina, our trip leader, who has lived in Bermuda for almost 30 years, but is originally from England. Trina and our Habitat staff have done a terrific job. I believe this is Trina’s fifth trip to Guatemala. We’ve had some great experiences.

TEAM PHOTO AT CACIQUE INN

Now I’ll tell you a bit about our work with the families - and I’ve already told you some about the stoves. Today is Saturday, so we finished our last three stoves yesterday. Each day we went to a different family’s house. As I’ve said, these families live in extreme poverty, often making no more than the equivalent of US $1.50 a day. Children begin working in the fields with their parents at a young age. By the time they are in their early teens, they may be leaving the village to work. Yesterday we built a stove for Doña Lorenza. Her 14-year-old son works outside the home in a shop - I can’t remember what sort exactly - in Solola, the city closest to their village. And her 16-year-old daughter works at a tortilleria, where they make tortillas all day. Her third child, a daughter, is 19 and is already married with two children, a three-year-old and a two-week old.

DOÑA LORENZA AND OUR TEAM, “LOS TRANSFORMADORES”

Doña Lorenza is a widow. She lives with her mother-in-law, her brother-in-law and the two children still at home. They all sleep in one room with two beds. The only other rooms in the house are her mother-in-law’s kitchen and her kitchen, which is much smaller and darker than her mother-in-law’s. To get to the “bathroom” you walk through the narrow gap between the two kitchens. The bathroom is much like the others I’ve described. This family has a lovely orange tree in their small dirt yard, whose fruit will be ready to eat in December. The rest of the yard is occupied by two large chicken coops, but I saw no chickens, and another large shed that I’m guessing is used for storage. And off to one side is a large, T-shaped sink called a pila, which has three sections to it. The middle section is deeper and wider than the two on either side and holds a large amount of water. The two side sections are shallow and have a ridged surface, likely to wash clothes and clean dishes. You scoop the water from the the main basin and use it throughout the day.

PILA

Doña Lorenza’s family also had a couple large, round plastic containers filled with water for us to use and also for the family to use. Most of these families don’t have clean drinking water. 95% of the water in Guatemala is contaminated, so we can’t brush our teeth with the water or, obviously, drink it. None of the 12 families with whom we worked had a water filter. We took our own clean water every day. At the end of the day we’d leave whatever water we didn’t drink. The women filled jugs, pots, pans and whatever else could hold water, so we’d leave behind an odd assortment of containers filled with purified water. On some healthy homes builds, families get a stove, a latrine and a water filter. In this case, the families are so impoverished they are unable to afford all three. Our team donated money for each of the twelve families to receive a water filter.

PUPPIES SHARE DOÑA LORENZA’S WATER TOO

Many women in the Mayan communities surrounding Solola and Pana are single mothers as a result of being widows. Mayan women in these communities don’t remarry. Most of the time when we were building our stoves, we were surrounded by women and young children. The men were off working in the fields, along with the older kids - or they were off working elsewhere. Sometimes men do weaving or embroidery, as was the case with our first family. Victor and Pedro (brothers) both do intricate embroidery with sewing machines. I believe that Pedro also works in the fields around their home. Generally Guatemalans will do a little of whatever they can to earn money.

Our family on Tuesday was a pretty large group. Doña Maria and Don Santiago have nine children. Some of the girls have married and moved in with their husbands’ families. Some of the sons have married and their wives have come to live in the small family compound, though it’s a million times different than the compounds of the rich and famous one might think of when one hears “compound,” i.e., the Kennedy compound on Cape Cod. One of the daughters-in-law, Cristina, spoke good Spanish, so we spoke a lot with her. She’s sixteen, married to one of the sons and has a seven-month-old son. Cristina told us that her husband drinks and that she sleeps in her “kitchen” with her baby. The kitchen is essentially a lean to with a plastic tarp for a door. It’s packed full with various household items, like plastic baskets, cookware, bags - it just looks like a jumble of stuff. There was a small area with some blankets where Cristina said she sleeps. She asked both me and our Cristina, separately, for help. We’re not sure if what she’s told us is entirely true, but certainly she could use some help, as could any 16-year-old with a baby living in poverty.

CRISTINA AND HER SON, BRIAN

This same day I went for a walk with Jackie S. and Jan along the dirt road running through the corn fields. We eventually came to a group of shacks where a couple men were sitting. They came over to talk to us as we passed by on our way back to our site. From what I understood, there were three families living in the immediate area, all of whom were quite poor, but one of whom needed more help than the others. They asked if we wanted to go see the family, but I didn’t think it was smart to get too involved, since we ourselves couldn’t help. I told them we’d tell our Habitat companions about their situation and maybe they could help.

The one man who spoke more kept saying he wanted to learn English. I didn’t understand entirely what was said, but I got the gist. As well I got the sense that the man was somehow hoping we’d help him. I think when many of these people see us and hear we are from the US, they assume we are wealthy and can help them. In fact when we introduced ourselves to Wednesday’s family and I said I was from the US and specifically New York, Doña Maria said I must have a lot of money. And comparatively, I am wealthy.

It’s challenging sometimes to work in these impoverished communities where they have so little, as I want to as much as I can for them, but I’ve got to draw a line. Besides the challenge of how much to do for an individual or a family, there’s the limitation of working with a Habitat team. We can’t really give help to one person or family and not help the others. That would reflect poorly on Habitat overall and likely set unrealistic expectations for future projects.

In Guatemala besides Spanish there are 22 or 23 spoken Mayan languages and two Afro-Carribean languages (on the east coast). The Afro-Carribean culture and traditions are totally different from the Mayan ones. Many of the women with whom we worked spoke little Spanish, but a couple of our masons spoke Kachiquel, so we were able to communicate a little better. I used my limited Spanish to speak with those who did speak better Spanish.

And sometimes we could communicate without language, as when Doña Maria hugged us all at the her stove dedication. It was no big deal when she hugged the women, but when she got to Tom, who is quite tall - and a man, of course - all the women and girls burst into fits of giggles. In general, I’m impressed to see how much amusement and levity exists within the indigenous communities given how little they have. I’d say that’s been my experience in every Habitat build. Of course life goes on once we leave and behind closed doors and I’m sure there is misery too, but I’m glad to see the happiness as well.

DOÑA MARÍA AND DON SANTIAGO WITH THEIR NEW ESTUFA

DOÑA MARIA, KRISTYNA, MIGUEL AND TWO LITTLE ONES WHO WERE TOO SHY TO TELL ME THEIR NAMES

[shoujokitten]

Tonight!

Our show at Sacramento's Press Club starts at 8:00pm and is $6!!!  We hope to see you there! <3