Rent 2008: A Tale of Love, Dreams and Reality - Essay Sample

Introduction

Inspired by Puccini’s Favorite opera La Bohème, RENT 2008, a romance musical illustrates the highs and lows of a family of poverty-stricken, talented buddies staying in Village located East of Manhattan. The friends namely; Mark, Mimi, Angel, Joanne, Maureen, and Roger, have different ambitions. Mark, for instance, is an ambitious movie maker, Angel and Mimi are HIV positive and they are searching for true love as they come face to face with grim realities of life, Mark is HIV positive as well and ponders on his legacy before passing on, Joanne is business-minded and pursues faithfulness from her talented friend Maureen.

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Act One

The play is generally narrated from Mark’s point of view. As the show commences, Mark, a moviemaker and the raconteur of the show initiates filming an unplanned biography regarding his friends in the run-up to Christmas. The setting of the unplanned documentary is Marks’ room. As Mark turns the camera toward Roger, Mark’s mother disrupts with a call from the village. She informs mark that he will be missed at home during Christmas celebrations and Cheers up Mark having been dumped by his girlfriend.

Outside, Tom Collins, their friend comes for visitation but is robbed by thugs. Collins is later saved by a street drummer called Angel, after getting acquainted with one another; both realize that they are HIV - positive. Besides Benny, their friend married to an opulent person buys Mark and Rogers an apartment building, calls and breaks a promise of letting them reside in his apartment free of charge. Benny asks Mark and Roger for rent knowing very they are not in a position to pay. As a result, the power to Mark's and Rogers' apartment shut off, and both get rid of their frustration on being bankrupt and not in a position settle rent. In the meantime, Joanne is fixing the sound system since Maureen is supposed to commence her performance. Nevertheless, the sound system gets spoilt and Maureen calls Mark to assist in fixing the sound system against Joanne’s wishes. Mark and Rogers refuse to comply by declining to settle down the rent payment.

Later in the day, Mark invites Rogers to Maureen’s dinner in an attempt to get Marko out of the house. Unfortunately Roger turns down the offer. Mark then reminds Rogers not to forget to take his daily dose of azidothymidine, disclosing that Rogers is also HIV –positive having shared a contaminated needle with his deceased girlfriend. As soon as Mark Exits, Rogers breaks into the song “One song Glory” expressing his considerable need to leave a legacy before exiting the earth. Mark is later interrupted by a Mimi, an S& M dancer who resides downstairs. Mimi requests Rogers to help her light a candle since her electricity has been shut down and because she needs to prepare her heroine.

Collins manages to reach where Mark and Rogers reside accompanied by Angel and introduces Angel while flashing a large bundle of Cash. On inquiry about the huge bundle of Cash, Angel clarifies that a well-off woman funded him to play his drums to drive out a yappy little dog named Evita. In the meantime, Benny shows up and promises to let go rent should Mark and Rogers convince Maureen to stop yapping “You’ll see”. Again, Mark declines. After Benny exists, Collins and Angel welcome Mark and Rogers to attend a domestic HIV support group meeting. Mark promises he attends after fixing Maureen's sound system whereas Rogers turns down the invite.

As soon as Mark is done fixing the sound system, he Joins Angel and Collins at the HIV life support meeting. Most of the members express their views on living with HIV-AIDS. In the meantime Mimi goes back to Roger’s Loft and jokingly asks Rogers to take her for a date “Out Tonight”. Since Mimi is a heroin addict, Rogers is terrified. Rogers is encouraged by Mimi to stop thinking about the past saying that “no day but today”. After exiting a life support meeting, the friends save a homeless lady and later attend Maureen's performance. It is disclosed that Mimi and Benny dated lasted for three months. Joanne catches Maureen kissing another woman and angrily walks away “La Vie Boheme”. Act one ends when Roger and Mimi sharing a small kiss.

Act II begins with the characters singing about different ways to measure a year, eventually deciding to measure in love "Seasons of Love". Mark, Rogers, and Mimi's building has been locked as a consequence of participating in Maureen's protest. Joanne, Mark, and Maureen climb the fire escape and enter the apartment through a window while the rest use Angel's blowtorch to destroy the entrance (Happy New Year"). All the buddies get into the apartment to have a good time during the New Year. The celebration is cut short when Benny arrives. Benny requests mark to take a photo of him while providing a rent-free contract.

During Valentine’s Day, Joanne and Maureen fights whilst practicing for a new breakup and a new protest ("Take Me or Leave Me"). In the meantime, Mimi arrives home late after purchasing drugs secretly. As a result, Rogers believes that Mimi is cheating. All this time, Angel’s health worsens and Collins makes an effort to resuscitate him. All the partners reunite on coming to terms with purposelessness in living alone (“Without You”).

Mimi comes home late again after secretly buying drugs, causing Roger to believe that she is cheating on him with Benny. Roger jealously storms out, and Mimi sings about life without him. All the while, Angel's health suffers and Collins tries to nurse him back to health. All the couples reconcile because they realize the emptiness in living alone ("Without You"). Alexi continues convincing Mark to join. The play turns to a bed holding the partners, with the insinuation that they are all making love. This puts them in an embarrassing and annoying situation.

Conclusion

Most of the characters either have HIV or are homosexual. It is worth mentioning that the musical has intensity and energy which comes out better and in a more noticeable way on the stage. In as much as some cast members are idlers, most of them have an astonishing stage presence. All through the show, relationships progress under the cloud of substance abuse and HIV. All the characters are suited for the roles they play, their voices are projected well and it can be observed that most of the actors have a passion for musical instruments.