Going into this month’s read I was both excited and nervous to be reviewing a play as it is not what I typically gravitate towards, but I am so glad I did.

“Hunger” is set during wartime and follows a couple who is harbouring 3 persecuted individuals in a hidden alcove and an underground hole in their home. Greeley does an amazing job at keeping all details of the war and the people ambiguous which is also why this story works so well on the page. Without any context of race, ethnicity, religion, etc., it really hammers home the injustice of who is and is not persecuted and the futility of war. We are all just people trying to live, trying to eat, and the things that divide us in this world are arbitrary.

The main theme of the play is fairness, and because we have no visual or contextual clues that distinguish the characters it shows how fairness is subjective and people’s application of it is inherently unfair. Why are Max and Johanna allowed to live freely when Rivka and Isaac must live in the hole? Should Helen get to live in the larger alcove by herself just because she has more money than the other couple? In many ways the characters who had the most sensibility and kindness had to live in the worst conditions because of what was deemed “fair”.

What I found the most interesting about “Hunger” was how hunger became the driving force that caused a lot of the barriers between the characters to crumble and we saw the most character growth. For example, Helen enters the house young and spoiled from a life of riches and thus believes she is entitled to the most. But as the money and food stop she loses all sense of propriety. It was so complexly tragic that she only grew compassion due to her growing loss of humanity.

I highly recommend this book, especially to those a little skeptical of reading plays. The script is short, easy to follow, and a great start to get into this style of writing. I do caution readers that the story gets weirder and darker; as the hunger starts to eat away at the characters' sanity, Greeley in many ways does not hold back.

4.5/5

“A play about currency during wartime, survival, and the power dynamic between protectors and the protected.”

Hunger by Meghan Greeley was such an interesting play. It is written in a way that is non-specific for the timeline, though they use candles and not very high tech equipment, and it is in a time of ethnic cleansing, so you can consider it taking place in generally any wartime in the 1900’s. A middle-aged couple shelters a younger couple in their modest farmhouse, and when their guests' money runs out they welcome a wealthy teenage girl into the household. As food and other supplies run out, tension mounts.

This play gets WEIRD. Definitely a trigger warning for sexual assault, power imbalances, and possibly gore. It took me a month to write this review because I had no idea how to do it justice. It really shows how desperate times can change people, and portrays good people doing morally grey things, to the extent of leaning towards morally corrupt things. At the same time, they are still protecting the three stowaways, something that could get them shot and killed. What kind of price can one put on safety?

I highly recommend it as something you should read, and then read again, and then sit and think about for a while. It’s short, at only about 80 pages, but the content definitely balances out the length.