Between Riverside And Crazy

Imagine yourself as the set designer for a production of Between Riverside and Crazy. Identify five architectural or decorative features of Pops’s apartment that you feel must be visible to the audience and explain your choices with evidence from the text. 

How might a director choose to memorialize Pops’s wife in a production of the play? Consider such decisions as props, flashbacks, tone of voice, and anything else that might communicate something to the audience of the relationship between Pops and his wife. 

Research the impact of rent-control in New York City. Apply your findings to your understanding of the play. 

How does Guirgis characterize the police in this play? Does this characterization support or defy current stereotypes of the police? Support your analysis with evidence from the text. 

Some critics call Guirgis a poet of realism. Do you agree or disagree with this evaluation of the playwright’s language?  

Analyze the role of humor in the play by dissecting a particularly funny moment or line. In this moment, what is the purpose of humor, and how does it contribute to the characterization of the individuals involved?  

Do you find Lulu to be a sympathetic character? Can she be understood as a strong female character, or does she display behaviors that support negative stereotypes of women? Support your response with evidence from the text. 

The characters in Between Riverside and Crazy are complex and not entirely lovable. Choose the character you like the least, on a personal level, but find compelling despite his or her flaws, and write a character analysis of his or her motivations.