my cousin (19F) is in some experimental theater program where they’re putting on this super weird play called “roots and wounds,” which is basically a dramatized metaphor about family trauma. she wrote it herself and cast our actual family members to play exaggerated versions of themselves. i (21F) was excited at first bc i thought it’d be fun and hilarious.

then she told me she cast me as the “dead branch.”

like… literally. in the play, the tree represents the family. there’s a strong trunk (our grandma), some lively green branches (her and her sister), and then me, the dead branch that used to bloom but now “just hangs there.” in the script, other characters even talk about how sad and gray i’ve become, and one of the characters cuts me off and buries me in the second act.

when i asked her why i was the dead branch, she said it was because i “distanced myself from everyone emotionally” and “stopped attending sunday dinners” after my parents’ divorce. mind you, i didn’t even live in the same city for a year. and i’ve literally never said or done anything to hurt her.

i told her it was really insulting and that i wasn’t going to be part of her weird metaphorical funeral for me. she said i was being dramatic and that it’s just art, not personal. she even asked if i could just lie still under a brown tarp during the performance and “let the rest of the tree move on.” like, girl.

now a few people in the family are saying i should’ve just done it to support her, and that “art isn’t always flattering.” but i feel like it’s not about the art—it’s about her literally calling me the dead branch in front of everyone.

aitah for saying no and refusing to play the “sad, withered dead branch” in her emotional trauma tree play?