Cheaper by the Dozen Play Review Essay

I read the play, Cheaper by the Dozen, written by Christopher Sergel. I chose to read this play because when I was younger I liked the movie cheaper by the dozen, so I figured this would be a good play to read. The basic theme of this play is family, family comes first and you have to do everything you can to keep your family together, no matter how chaotic it may be. This play is about the Mr. and Mrs. Gilberth, and their 12 children. The main conflict in the story was maintaining order with all 12 children. Mr. Gilberth was very efficient with his parenting though, and always had a solution. The story was easy to understand and follow, it was clear and wasn’t confusing. For the most part the play was entertaining, mainly all of the family drama, and how they lived. Mr. Gilberth was one of the main characters in the play; he was the one who kept the family in order. He was a famous efficiency expert, and ran his family that way. Often times Mr. Gilberth would call the kids down to family meetings by blowing his whistle, all of the children had to stop what they were doing, and immediately report downstairs. I really liked Mrs. Gilberth, she tried to keep her husband, Mr. Gilberth in check, and is more reasonable when it comes to the children, she was very kind and gentle with the kids. I think the most important character relationships would be between Mr. Gilberth and his children, because he was the one who made the rules in the house, and disciplined the children. If I were to act in this play, I would want to be Lillian, she would be fun to play because she has a very childish personality, and is obsessed with boys. In the beginning of the script, I found it really boring, and didn’t want to finish reading it, but once I got farther into the script, the relationships between the family were shown, and it became more interesting. Overall I liked the script, it wasn’t my favorite thing I’ve read, but it was still entertaining. I would rather see this play than act in it, because I would want to see the story come to life, along with all of the characters. I think it could be a very funny play to see, and the story will seem more interesting.