Author: Dana Walters
"The Europeans" defies description. Even the actors struggled to find the right words to encapsulate Howard Barker's play, which opens in Seeler Studio Theatre on April 30. Remarks about "art," "catastrophe," "morality" and "love" flew around backstage, but no single term was all-encompassing. While "The Europeans" resists simplification, the difficulty in expressing the play succinctly could never match the arduous task of the production itself. However, as one of the leading women, Lauren Fondren '09 said, "It's always a joy to work on a challenge."
"The Europeans" follows the aftermath of the Viennese siege of 1684 and the destructive toll that battle exacts upon humanity. Historical figures such as King Leopold of Austria (played by Mathew Nakitare '10) and his military hero Starhemberg (Will Damron '09) mix with commoners that have been devastated by the fighting. One such refugee, Katrin (Veracity Butcher '09), has endured enormous physical damage - rape and disfigurement - at the hands of the Turks, but this is nothing in comparison with the emotional havoc she suffers as a result. Meanwhile, her sister Susannah (Fondren) harbors a consuming ardor for a priest whose own morality is questionable.
These characters walk in and out of each other's worlds, conflicting and colliding with each other and their own humanity and trauma. "It's about people who strive to survive war and its aftermath," said Professor of Theatre Richard Romagnoli, the play's director. "They're smart, passionate, articulate, resourceful, angry and unsentimental. Their pain and anger are part of their identity, which they will never wash in reconciliation." Butcher added that within each character resides an inherent "self-centeredness" that each actor displays with unbridled emotion.
A synopsis barely scratches the surface of the play. War, art, heroism, pain, madness and love are just a few of the motifs the characters grapple with. Romagnoli said of the playwright, "His plays deal with big ideas: They're unapologetically clamorous. I love Howard's work because it asks more of me as a director and as an audience than most other plays I've read. I always enjoy the struggle."
These big ideas are most always expressed in dozens of words throughout the drama; however, the debates that engulf the work fall second to the uninhibited feeling threading itself through the entire narrative, most keenly visible in the characters' desperation. This passion is the story that most struggle to describe. If one takes a mere moment to piece together the plot from the words and not the emotion, then the play's true focus will have fallen by the wayside. To miss these palpable sensations is to miss everything.
Despite the drama's difficulty, Jimmy Wong '09, who plays a painter following King Leopold around, said, "It's kind of fun to feel entirely lost at the beginning." Fondren seconded that, saying, "It's been interesting because Richard [Romagnoli] came into it telling us, 'I don't know anymore than you do.' It's been a collaborative effort from the start." Romagnoli himself stated that his obsession with Barker began early in his career, but he waited to put on one of the pieces after the theatre department chair advised against it, and Romagnoli understands now why it was necessary. Seventeen years later, Middlebury has the grand opportunity to see the result of his years of pining - a delay that has proven fruitful and worthwhile.
The play's appeal, furthermore, surfaces along with the controversy of its conception. Rejected during the 1980s by the Royal Shakespeare Company, "The Europeans" is not without its share of detractors, but Butcher was quick to come to its defense. "It's gratuitous. It's shocking. It's appalling. There's all these gross things that happen on stage, but they're all purely absurd and not supposed to make sense," she explained. Within a single scene, for example, the audience is privy to one character's overwhelming sexual yearning, a view of a decapitated head and another character's vomiting reaction. Not many plays could enfold such disparate sequences within a few minutes, but as Fondren expained, "It's a kind of a play about not making things comfortable." If she is correct, though, the awkwardness is uncompromisingly pleasurable, in the way that wrestling with complex issues creates both exhaustion and a sense of accomplishment. The palpable passion onstage reaches out to the audience in such a manner that the drama becomes participatory, the pain onstage reflected in the audience's anticipatory held breath.
With the promise of an enjoyable distress, therefore, "The Europeans" beckons an audience to watch its madness unfold. Watching the play and performing it is both a struggle and a joy for all. Indeed, Romagnoli and many of those involved all sought seemingly opposing adjectives when expressing details of the drama and its production. The same effect has its way with the viewer, confounding and mesmerizing at the same time. The script itself is not enough to create this tone, and reading it does not produce anything close to the same reaction as seeing it live on stage. While all plays are ultimately meant for a speaker's mouth, this one in particular only finds its resonance when truly fervent actors like the ones in this production speak their lines. While Fondren said, "It's about staying in the fire," merely referring to the plight of the characters within the drama, the same sentence can be used to illustrate watching the play itself. And while it might be a tad masochistic, getting burned can also be exhilarating.
Directed by Richard Romagnoli, "The Europeans" will play in Seeler Studio Theatre on April 30 at 8 p.m., May 1 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and May 2 at 8 p.m.
Get ready for...The Europeans
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