Last month, I went to see the play, "The Library", at the Public Theater in the East Village. I went because it featured Chloe Grace Moretz as the lead, and I have really admired her previous work in film, but this was actually her stage debut. This play relates to studies of memory because it has ties to neuropsychology and specifically, false memory.
The play starts off with a 17-year-old girl named Caitlin, played by Chloe Grace Moretz, who gets shot by a man she later realizes she knew because he delivered pizzas to her house. The shooting takes place in the library of her high school, where she is studying. She gets shot after the man asks her if she knows him. She says no, but hesitates (because she does actually know him), so he shoots her. After shooting her, he then asks a girl who is praying where the other students are. They are all hiding in the library's A.V. closet, so she tells them where they are, and he shoots her as well as the others in the closet.
Caitlin survives the shooting, but the praying girl does not. The praying girl's mother hears from a student who was also in the library that Caitlin was the person who told the shooter where all of the other students were. Unfortunately for Caitlin, this one's student's account is spread through the media, and Caitlin is cast out by her friends, and her school. Police interrogate her, using methods to extract what they think is the truth. Caitlin tells the police that the praying girl told the shooter where the other students were, but the interrogator presents possible evidence that she actually told the shooter where the other students were, and tries to sway her to confess to something that she did not do. The media turns against her, and a petition is created so she will not return to school. The praying girl's mother also writes a book inaccurately accounting the events of the shooting and writes that she forgives Caitlin for what she did. Everyone becomes skeptical, and Caitlin's own mother accuses her of having a false memory of the traumatic event, and Caitlin grows furious because she cannot believe how everyone is turning against her so quickly.
Eventually, the original student who said he saw Caitlin tell the shooter where the other students were goes back to the library where the shooting was, as they mention that going back to the scene can help trigger memories and relieve symptoms of PTSD. He quickly realizes his memory was false for the shooting and that Caitlin did not say where the others were hiding, so she is finally listened to and understood.
This play truly made me realize how memory can be manipulated in so many hurtful ways; as a weapon, as a testimony for a crime, and as evidence to catch a criminal. This play also further connects with the case of the Central Park 5.
False Confessions
TALK ABOUT HOW IT CONNECTS TO THE CENTRAL PARK 5 AND http://web.williams.edu/Psychology/Faculty/Kassin/files/Kassin_Gudjonsson_PSPI_05.pdf
memory in the play, "the Library"
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