How I Learned to Drive

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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.