The media have been inundated with movies and books about abusive relationships. Most of these portraits however, paint a very black-and-white picture of the victim and victimizer, the latter often depicted as a one-dimensional "monster." How I Learned to Drive transcends that typical representation of abuse, painting both lead characters as real, three-dimensional people with complicated feelings and problems. Through a sequence of non-linear scenes from her memory, Li'l Bit reveals the close but harmful bond that evolved over the years with her Uncle Peck and the impact it left on her. We bear witness to Li'l Bit's story of a man's quiet and painful addiction and her own path toward survival and forgiveness.

When writing this play, Vogel said that she wanted to be "respectful and responsible." She invited women with similar tales of survival to witness the work and comment on it. Their feedback was very positive. These women embraced the story for its honesty and its realistic portrait of the cycle of abuse in all its many layers. In an interview with the playwright, Literary Director of American Repertory Theatre said the play was about how we receive harm from the people who love us. Paula Vogel said she believed the opposite is true. "I would say we receive great love from the people who harm us." From this standpoint, How I Learned to Drive unfolds. It is with a great love for and ultimate understanding of her Uncle Peck that compels Li'l Bit forward with her story and strengthens her ability to forgive and survive. Vogel observed that in many treatments on the same theme (in movies, books and documentaries), the one thing that often gets left out of the portrait of the trauma is "the victim's responsibility to look the experience squarely in the eye and then to move on."

How I Learned to Drive is a realistic and surprisingly humorous portrait of a family in rural Maryland facing (and sometimes denying) a potentially destructive relationship. Like many of Vogel's plays dealing with serious and taboo subjects, humor functions as a disengaging device. It forces us to realize that laughter and tears are two very human reactions to life's unexpected twists and turns. They are also a very therapeutic way of facing trauma. Both strengthen our own survival skills and allow us the emotional catharsis that we need in order to make it through the trauma. Much of the humor in How I Learned to Drive comes from the use of a "Greek Chorus". It functions as several characters (Li'l Bit's mother, aunt, grandparents and high school friends) and through its almost cartoonish-style, the chorus reinforces the three-dimensional quality of Li'l Bit and Uncle Peck - the two characters Vogel wants us to understand the most.

Like the rural Maryland landscape of the play, the story is full of rough roads, beauty and history. We bear witness to a land and people of survival and learn some important rules of the road. When the humor has dissipated and all we have in front of us is the truth, we are still compelled forward on this journey. The driving lessons extend above and beyond any textbook essay and stay with us long after the curtain closes.