‘For the Next Guy’

The Free Press | October 18, 2022

‘For the Next Guy’

How Stories Break the Silence

by Patrisha McLean

I settled into my seat at The Strand Theatre for an evening of entertainment, watching David Troup in the one-man, live production of For the Next Guy. The play is about a Mainer who, according to the playbill, “survived a chaotic childhood and incarceration.”

Domestic abuse reared its ugly head as the root of both these circumstances. Domestic abuse really is everywhere, once it is reframed away from the stereotype of a wife with a black eye and revealed in all its nuanced and insidious forms. It is obvious in the hit mini-series Maid about a young mother  fleeing a violent and controlling boyfriend, but it is just as relevant in the Netflix documentary Brittany vs. Spears, as we see a man’s power and control robbing his daughter of her autonomy and freedom even to have a baby.

Norman Kehling, the subject of For the Next Guy, served 30 years in Maine State Prison on a charge of arson. In the play, the firrst allusion to domestic abuse is the burning pile of “women’s clothing” that Norman says is his only recollection (being black-out drunk) of seeing the blaze. 

According to a 1991 Maine Supreme Court ruling denying an appeal of Norman’s conviction and sentence two years earlier, here is what happened:

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Maine Voices: Not a love story

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Open your eves: Domestic abuse is all around us