'Life As We Knew It' Seen in a Way Not Yet Determined

After glancing at some of classmates proposals, I feel a little underprepared. I have an idea and I think it is a good one, but it needs to be hashed out more. A lot of decisions revolve around how many people can participate. The text I have chosen to adapt is Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer, which was wildly popular in my seventh grade friend group. It’s a novel of around 330 pages that is written as a diary from the point of view of a girl named Miranda, whose family- as well as the rest of the world- has to deal with the moon falling out of its orbit and the world consequently going to shit. It’s not a traditional sci-fi novel, by which I mean there are no supernatural elements or crazy advanced technology. It’s set in present day, and though I’m not sure if the science is all there, the events that happen seem entirely plausible if the moon was to stop doing what it’s doing. Miranda has an older and a younger brother; they all live with their mom. Life is normal until it just isn’t. They have to fight for food in grocery stores. They have to stockpile and eventually give up their car. They have to give up meals and ration water and oil. The TV is gone; the radio disconnected. They are hungry and isolated by the world that has descended into anarchy. It’s a book about a girl whose story could have been an entirely different one and maybe closer to that of the girls that normally graced the pages of our novels in middle school, but it’s instead a survival story of a family that struggles constantly with how much to sacrifice and when to draw a line where life becomes something worth not living.

This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for a very long time and has gone untouched until last night. I reread the last third of it, but I still have to review the beginning. I had opened to a couple of pages before this really powerful scene that takes place between Miranda and her mother. Her mother had been in charge of the pantry and in rationing the food strictly to keep their supply lasting as long as possible. Miranda was fed up and angry and hungry and she finds a bag of chocolate chips in the pantry. She was the one who had thrown them in the cart when everyone went crazy at the supermarket directly post-moon. She feels she has the right to them, so she eats them. She knocks them back without swallowing because she just wants them and needs for them to be hers. Her mother finds her and screams at her before Miranda accidentally spills them on the floor. Her mother goes silent and then makes her pick up every single one and eat it. She eats the entire bag even though she feels like puking and her mother just watches her. When she finishes, her mother tells her they were for her brother’s birthday and then says she is to go without food for the next two days. This is such an unreal scene where Miranda is faced with a woman who is so clearly her mom, but is faced with her talking about life which has circumstances that are unbelievable. This scene shows a shift between them and a settling of them into this new reality where pettiness is not just inappropriate, but simply unacceptable.

There are more scenes that just happen between Miranda and her Mom that I would like to stage. The breakdown and then reconstruction of the relationship between them makes for a compelling storyline within the novel. I think I would like to stage a series of scenes between them and start with the chocolate chip scene. I recognize that this leaves some ambiguity, but I think, if played right (and that is a big IF), it will relay the desperation and otherworldliness to their situation that can be further explained by going back in time and giving flashbacks of  before. To create this separation between before and after, I’d show a clear difference in their living room. The family spends most of the time post-moon in their sunroom because it's more efficient for heating purposes, so I would like the whole piece to take place in that one room. Before’s sunroom would be neatly organized and have chairs and coffee table with magazines, while after would have a matresses on the floor and a laundry tub in the corner. The stove would be functional rather than decorative. Lighting would also be an important factor. Things post-moon are described as grey and I think that the change not only reflects the time switch but the general mood of the moments.

I had been experiencing some mom vibes because of Mother's’ Day when coming up with this pitch, so I chose some scenes with the idea of highlighting the changes in their relationship in mind. But I do also like the idea of having her brothers present. Cutting them out of the script completely would alter too much of the family dynamic. You could perhaps cut it down to one brother, but as much as I appreciate the mother-daughter relationship in the book, there are some strong moments that miranda has with her brothers. There is this one scene toward the end when her older brother and her have this conversation about her going to town. Going to town effectively means killing yourself. It’s awful and heartbreaking, but instead of protesting, her brother asks her not to take the skis because their younger brother was going to need them. There's also this touching moment where things look up for a second when everyone comes together for Christmas to give what they can. The one room set up would still apply if the brothers would included, as would the lighting. This story is filled with powerful moments that create this clear picture of a changing family dynamic that I think can be juxtaposed with each other and used to create emotionally upheaving stand alone scenes.
I think generally I just want to highlight these drastic changes- juxtapositions- that occurred within their family dynamic post-moon. Depending on which route is chosen, the scene could require four people(The two brothers (Johnny and Matt), Miranda, and the mom) or just two (Miranda and her mom.) Everything would take place in one room and though the story is told as a diary, I wouldn’t want any side narration because I think it would take away from the moment happening on set if the audience was thinking about or hearing or just being exposed to Miranda’s reflective point of view. I fell in love with this book many years ago and would love to adapt it slightly and be able to perform it. I think it could be challenging due to his serious nature, but as long as I worked with actors who understand the gravity of the material, I think it would work out very well.