Spencer Kury and Maddie Tyler in Fairfax High School's ‘Good Afternoon, Angel.’
Living life virtually has been hard to grasp, as has been adapting to the struggles of quarantine. Writer, director, and editor Tori Miller perfectly brought to life a high school love story by incorporating virtual elements, focused dialogue, and attention to symbolistic detail. She demonstrated the true power of love in her short play, "Good Afternoon, Angel." Avabelle was a high school student who, upon FaceTiming her boyfriend, talked to him, and then met up with him, seemed to be reliving some sort of dream. She repeated the same day a number of times, each day changing something in it, and it later was shown that was because she and her boyfriend, Gabe, got into a car crash – and he was hit.
Actors Madeleine Tyler and Spencer Kury did a phenomenal job in demonstrating a high school couple. The script of the show (written by Tori Miller) was nothing short of a perfectly accurate display of emotions, including Gabe's line "Good Afternoon, Angel," and the emotional speech he makes at the end. Madeleine's facial expressions and the authenticity of her genuine confusion were also quite note-worthy. This play was full of symbolism and deeper meanings, through the clothing, room decor, facial expressions, and names of the characters. Gabe was shown wearing white throughout the play, most likely symbolizing him having passed. The names Tori chose for these characters reflected the play perfectly. "Gabe" to reference the angel Gabriel, and "Avabelle" meaning "beautiful life." Her choice to use this resonated with Avabelle needing to move on without Gabe and live a beautiful life, as they were talking about how beautiful the future would be.
Especially captivating was the overall theme of dreams in the play. In their phone call, Gabe and Avabelle talked about where they dream of moving someday and starting a life with each other. Gabe also told Avabelle about a dream he had with his friend in it, and she told him how she thinks she's dreaming because the day keeps repeating. In the end, we find out that Avabelle kept reliving the day (and trying to change the outcome) because she needed to realize that Gabe's death was inevitable. In her many relivings of the day, Avabelle tried to do things differently: to stay in instead of going out and to have her drive instead of Gabe. Either way, she still went to bed and woke up the same way: with a phone call from Gabe and his words "Good Afternoon, Angel."
At the end of the show, the last phone call, Gabe somewhat revealed the truth to her. He did this by saying to her, "Are you ready to let go?" He had her talk about her future without him, and she made him promise that he would always be here for her. That is foreshadowing, as it is shown soon after that he said "I won't be able to keep that promise in person, but I'll always be with you." This line was in the monologue Gabe gave at the very end when Avabelle hung up the phone, and the screen changed to show just him. Actor Spencer Kury made a beautiful monologue, speaking metaphorically to Avabelle, telling her he'd always watch over her and he loved her very much.
Fairfax High School's "Good Afternoon, Angel" was an excellent story – a show with heart-melting love and intriguing dialogue and emotion, and overall an extremely well-done production.
To Watch
The Fairfax High School show is available to watch for free. The link to this show is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OrAnjkb1hw&feature=youtu.be