The play, The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds, by Paul Zindel, is about Shy Matilda "Tillie" Hunsdorfer prepares her experiment, involving marigolds raised from seeds exposed to radioactivity, for the science fair. She is, however, constantly brought down by her mother Beatrice, who is self-centered and abusive, and by her unstable sister Ruth, who listens to what her mother demands from her. Over the course of the play, Beatrice constantly tries to stamp out any opportunities Tillie has of succeeding, due to her own lack of success in life.
It’s world premiere was in 1964 at the Alley Theatre in Houston. Then was premiered Off-Broadway at the Mercer Arts Center on April 7, 1970 and ran for two years. It was eventually performed…show more content… She devoured glamorous ads and always said between suicide threats, that things were getting better. She’d say that one day we’d have our own warm brick home and a new General Motors car… My sister would always ask, ‘When, Mom? When?’And while our mother dreamed and held onto a bizarre, preposterous pride, some nights there would be no food to eat, no coal to burn. She forced us to live in a secret poverty… When Sunday came, she’d make us draw the shades and hide in our wreck of a…show more content… However, even though in the play there isn’t a huge confrontation or rebellion with the mother, as she succeeded in bringing her children down to make her feel better by killing their pet rabbit, getting rid of Nanny, not caring for Tillie’s science fair, at the end when Tillie does her speech that is in itself is a hint towards that rebellion that teenagers have greatly today. The reason why Tille didn’t have that because in 1964 their voices were just being discovered and weren’t fully developed yet as it is
