Poor Glen Ridge can't get a break. As if it didn't have enough baggage with its infamous 1989 rape case, now it's got a new fictional scandal to deal with. "A Mother's Scorn," written by Bloomfield resident Michelle Sydney, bills itself as "a play based on sexual abuse in an affluent family's home in Glen Ridge, NJ."
It has nothing to do with the other case, but is about a stepfather in an affluent black family who molests his stepdaughter. "I was tired of society and the media picking on low-income neighborhoods," Sydney explained. "Rich and affluent communities suffer just as much. I wanted a rich town in New Jersey. The first town that came to mind was Glen Ridge."
The mosly-Caribbean cast includes members from Trinidad, Jamaica, the Caymans and Puerto Rico.
The play will have only one performance, this Saturday night, July 12, at 6 pm at Bloomfield High School, although Sydney, a Justice Studies major at Montclair State, has big dreams of taking the play national. Tickets are $25 ahead of time and $30 at the door. More information here.
Not that I want to cast doubt on teh creative process - but why does a town name have to be included in the title at all?
Would Jaws have been more scary if it had been titled Jaws at the Jersey Shore?