First Zoo show of semester exposed Provocative performance undresses audience expectations

Author: Kelsey Smith

Thursday evening ushered in the beginning of another season for the Hepburn Zoo with a collection of provocative student productions directed by Rishabh Kayshap '08 and Leah Day '07.5 entitled Naked Slash Truth. The evening began with a selection of four short pieces, each directed by Kashyap '08. When asked about why he decided to direct, Kashyap answered, "to have fun." His goal was clearly achieved through the four varied pieces, which succeeded in bringing both amusement and dark comedy to the eager audience members of the Zoo.

First from Kashyap was the short piece Hardy Boys and the Mystery of Where Babies Come From written by Christopher Durang, a comedic playwright known specifically for his use of satire. Kashyap seems to have a knack for creating stylized moods - the combination of cheesy 1950s music and a sexy nurse's costume made the Hardy Boys' quest for the truth of what it means to have a "bun in the oven" a clear success.

Next, the disturbing science-fiction play Weed Dreams by Eric Kaiser, presented the audience with three people awaiting their beloved leader who was represented as "God on Earth." While meant to serve as a commentary on the power of totalitarian leaders, the witty dialogue, delivered flawlessly by Laura Harris '07, Maegan Mishico '8.5 and Ryan Hart '07, made humor, instead of terror, the focal point.

The hopelessness of despondent lovers in John Patrick Shanley's Down and Out was overshadowed by the comedy of larger than life Figure/Postman, played by Joe Barsalona '07. The first act finished with a second piece by Shanley, Out West, a spoof on typical western story lines. Out West ends tragically with the death of a young girl, but the tragedy is immediately dispelled when Cowboy, played by Barsalona, frankly exclaims, "Poor thing - she's dead!" The levity is maintained when the barkeep, played by Ryan Hart '06.5, asks Cowboy if he's planning on going upstairs to keep the lovely Betsy, played by Veracity Butcher '09, company.

After intermission, the mood of the evening took a decidedly different turn. The one-act play, Beirut, written by Alan Browne and directed by Day, takes us to a squalid one room apartment on New York City's lower east side. A Totalitarian government has quarantined the apartment building for it contains people who have tested positive for an unnamed disease that seems to represent the AIDS virus.

The continuity of the evening itself posed several problems. While the idea of juxtaposing humor and tragedy can be well-executed under certain circumstances, the audience, faced with the darkness of Beirut after Kashyap's selections, seemed unsure of how to react at times. Moments that were intended to serve as light comic relief in Beirut turned into opportunities for laughter, simply because the audience was thrown off balance.

The evening raised the question of how to interpret a work that was clearly written in response to a certain social context. This is obviously most pertinent to Beirut, however the question applies to the overt satire of Hardy Boys and the Mystery of Where Babies Come From as well. While the overtly sexually perverse Nurse Ratched, a role played so perfectly that it seems to have been specially created for Sally Swallow '07, provides us with plenty of opportunities for a little sophomoric laughter. The piece is also clearly aiming to comment on the Puritanical staunchness of suburban America - a task that seems most at home in the 1950s or 1960s, the era in which the play is set.

Will Damron '09 plays Torch, an infected person, who, in the opening moments of Beirut, gives a very honest portrayal of his morning ritual. As he awakes and proceeds to wash his face and masturbate, we see that he has been tattooed with a capital "P" for positive on his left buttock. When Torch's onetime girlfriend, Blue, played by Laura Harris '07, who is not a "P," arrives unexpectedly, Torch's excitement quickly turns to anger and repulsion because she is putting her life in danger to be with him. Thus begins the unfolding of a doomed "will they or won't they" relationship defined by a dangerously unavoidable sexual tension.

Set design and costumes were simple and effective; the graffiti, comprised mostly of obscenities, was made symbolic by the placement of the word "love," meant to represent the possibility for humanity amidst even the bleakest of backdrops.

Day commented on one difficulty she found in directing Beirut, saying, "The hardest aspect about directing this play is the large amount of repetitive and almost meaningless text that causes the constant turn of emotion. With this type of language, the director must keep the play fresh and that was definitely my biggest challenge." Day succeeded in keeping the play novel by physically creating a sort of cyclical pattern that involved Torch and Blue's powerful physical passion leading to outbursts of physical violence. Though the repetitive nature of the text was not as evident to the audience, there were moments when the character's strong working-class New York accents were extremely distracting. The dialogue itself would have been successful in conveying the character's social situations.

Though Harris and Damron succeeded in producing an amazingly powerful physical urgency, the uniqueness and necessity of their love was never sincerely convincing. Instead, the emphasis was placed on the fact that the actions of a Totalitarian regime had rendered life both in and out of quarantine so devoid of pleasure - physical or otherwise - that Blue had been driven to the arms of her infected lover as a means of escape and ultimately in an effort to pass the time. This is not a reflection of the actors' or director's capability, rather of the text itself coupled with the fact that we have gained a bit of historical distance from the initial outbreak of the AIDS epidemic.

While the director's notes for Beirut encourage the audience to remember, "A time when people did not know what to expect from a disease like AIDS," the task was not truly necessary to understanding and appreciating the piece. While the play's historic meaning may have lost its punch, a contemporary reading is not any less worthy or significant.

The importance of student run productions at Middlebury is equal to the content of the performances themselves. "I want to emphasize how important it is to utilize the Zoo and do an all student show," said Day. "I also think that students here should not be afraid to grasp onto difficult material, find a great cast and take a risk in putting the show on. In my opinion, we are all here to experiment with the medium, so why not give it a try and ignore the option of failing?"

It is indeed very impressive to watch an entirely student produced evening of theatre. Day and Kashyap were successful in turning out a professional yet distinctively fresh and exciting night of short plays.