Ep 4. Dram

In the fourth episode of Man Seeking Woman's first season, Josh's sister Liz invites him to see her play in a community theater production of a "contemporary" adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank. The play, titled "Dram," is set in an unnamed war-torn foreign land, replacing Anne Frank's attic with a bomb shelter and the Nazis with faceless "rebels."

Josh, skeptical of the production's artistic merit, is hesitant but ultimately agrees to go to the show, despite the fact that he has not been in a theater since high school. Upon arriving at the theater, he is immediately overwhelmed by the avant-garde atmosphere and the enthusiasm of Liz's fellow actors, who are all participating in the show on a volunteer basis.

As the play begins, Josh becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the production's heavy-handed political overtones and the ham-fisted dialogue of the actors. However, when the play takes a dark and unexpected turn, he finds himself drawn in by the raw emotion and intensity of the performers.

Throughout the play, Josh struggles to reconcile his own feelings of disgust and despair with the artistic merits of the production. He finds himself increasingly drawn to the lead actress, Rosa, who delivers a heartbreaking monologue about the horrors of war and the fragility of the human spirit.

After the show, Josh and Liz go backstage to meet the actors, where Josh tells Rosa how much he was moved by her performance. However, Rosa, still in character, rebuffs his advances, insisting that she cannot allow herself to feel anything for someone in a war zone.

As the episode comes to a close, Josh is left to contemplate the nature of art, politics, and love in a world where none of these things can be taken for granted. He realizes that the power of the theater is not in its ability to reflect reality, but in its ability to help us understand and cope with the world around us, however ugly and horrifying that world may be.