While reading this unsettling play, I was reminded of the Frank Loesser song “Inchworm,” from the movie “Hans Christian Andersen.” In the song, Andersen sings a haunting refrain encouraging an inchworm to stop and think how beautiful marigolds are while in the background we hear students monotonously intoning an arithmetic lesson. Both Loesser’s song and Omorotionmwan’s play are lyrical pleas for the acceptance and beauty of non-conformity, with Omorotionmwan adding layers of fear and loss that make this play a devastating cautionary tale for our times.
While reading this unsettling play, I was reminded of the Frank Loesser song “Inchworm,” from the movie “Hans Christian Andersen.” In the song, Andersen sings a haunting refrain encouraging an inchworm to stop and think how beautiful marigolds are while in the background we hear students monotonously intoning an arithmetic lesson. Both Loesser’s song and Omorotionmwan’s play are lyrical pleas for the acceptance and beauty of non-conformity, with Omorotionmwan adding layers of fear and loss that make this play a devastating cautionary tale for our times.