Writer’s Note: Jen Silverman, THE ROOMMATE

Many years ago, my mother-in-law took on a female roommate right around the time that my partner and I started dating. Though I hadn’t yet met her, she began regularly updating my partner on the complexities of sharing space with a relative stranger. I was fascinated by these updates, because it seemed to me such an intricate thing to navigate – the intimacy of shared domesticity, particularly as two women who had lived many chapters of life prior to living together. And then, one day, her roommate disappeared without explanation – bags packed, room empty. The seeds of the story captured my imagination and, inventing wildly, I wrote a play. When THE ROOMMATE had its world premiere, my future mother-in-law flew out to see it. (I don’t recommend this for your nervous system.) (Luckily, she has a great sense of humor.)

I think we all reach moments in our lives where we feel trapped by the accumulated decisions we’ve made, by the things we’ve become accustomed to. We may not even be aware that we’re unhappy – we’re just mired in the status quo. Sharon’s status quo is her isolation and her feeling of being invisible to others; similarly, Robyn has been moving through the world as a lone – and lonely – wolf, although in much different circumstances. As roommates, the two of them create a combustible energy; they can imagine themselves differently, because they create a space in which they can imagine together. Once someone helps you to see a new life for yourself, the natural next step is to reach for it. Though the play is often discussed as a comedy, for me, it has its roots in that heart-deep loneliness, and in the hunger unleashed by finally feeling communion with someone else.

It’s rare to see exciting, provocative, complicated, morally ambiguous portraits of older women onstage or on screen. There’s something so sanitized about the images we receive of women who are, say, over thirty-five – and that image doesn’t actually mesh with the 50 and 60 and 70 year old women I know, who are hilarious and complex and fascinating. I wanted to write a play that gave two female characters the same due that older male characters receive much more often, and I’ve loved seeing how theatres across the world have risen with enthusiasm to this challenge, and the incredible actors who have stepped forward to hold these characters. I’m grateful to Ensemble Theatre for giving this story a home.

Jen Silverman