How I Learned to Drive
A woman, known to the audience only as L'il Bit, tells a story of her complicated relationship with her uncle. Uncle Peck taught Li'l Bit to drive, as well as a few other things. According to the playwright, Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive is "a play about the gifts we receive from the people who hurt us" — and about control and manipulation. It is possibly the most heartbreaking play about pedophilia and incest you'll ever read or see.
How I Learned to Drive won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 and was revived Off Broadway in 2012.
Tropes used in How I Learned to Drive include:
- The Alcoholic
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: As well as grandparents. Li'l Bits' breasts are a regular dinner topic.
- Coming of Age Story
- Embarrassing Nickname: Li'l Bit, Uncle Peck, and many other members of the family are given nicknames that refer to their genitals.
- Fille Fatale: Averted, though Li'l Bit is accused of being one by her uncle's wife.
- Freudian Excuse: Hinted at.
- Growing Up Sucks: And how.
- Hey, It's That Guy!: The original production starred Mary-Louise Parker as Li'l Bit, David Morse (of St. Elsewhere) as Uncle Peck, and comedian Michael Showalter (of Stella and The State) as the Male Greek Chorus.
- Michael Ian Black: ...Michael [Showalter] was in How I Learned To Drive, which won a Pulitzer Prize. I was in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- David Wain: Which won a Tony. [1]
- Hot for Student, arguably, though Peck isn't an official (driving) teacher.
- Incest Is Relative
- Not Blood Siblings: Peck married into Li'l Bit's family. But still.
- Off the Wagon After Li'l Bit rejects him, Uncle Peck eventually drinks himself to death.
- Only Known by Their Nickname
- Sympathy for the Devil: Though immoral behavior is not presented as being moral.
- Thanks for the Mammary: A middle school classmate fakes an allergic reaction, and when Li'l Bit asks what he's allergic to, he grabs a handful and yells, "foam rubber!"
- Umbrella Drink: Lampshaded, in a way: Li'l Bit is strenuously warned against ordering one of these.