Loving two people at once, black men loving black men and infanticide were the major themes in the plays presented in this year's 77th annual Eleanor Frost Playwriting Festival.
The first play, "Complex Mathematics in the Backyard," was ambitious but often came off soap-operatic. On the left side of the stage, Dean Steinberg reminisces with his wife Susan about the events surrounding the night he lost his virginity. On the right side, the night is acted out. Young Dean, his best friend Benjamin, Benjamin's brother Jeremy and their friend Katherine are sitting outside drinking beer and watching fireworks. Young Dean and Jeremy are both in love with hardheaded, sexually-experienced Katherine. A series of erotically-charged events unfold which may prove interesting to college students on account of their themes -- friendship and sex -- but don't fit together in any real logical order.
The theme of loving two people at the same time, which the play seems to center around -- Dean being in love with both Susan and his memory of Katherine, and Katherine being in love with both Dean and Jeremy -- is unfortunately only half-developed, and is more told than shown, as they would say in a creative writing class.
The acting in "Complex Mathematics in the Backyard" was alternately good and awkward. For the most part, the characters do not play off each other well and often it seemed like they were just reciting their lines. The fight scenes between Jeremy and Dean and old Dean and young Dean were entertaining but superfluous.
The highlight of the evening was the second play, "Fourth and Goal." The play is about two roommates who grew up in Miami, Derrick and Jeremy, and are preparing to go to Derrick's wedding rehearsal. Jeremy, Derrick's best man, is immature and unemployed and drags his feet, complaining about Derrick's marrying a white woman and moving to Syracuse. Jeremy's foot-dragging and the quote in the program, "Black men loving black men is the revolutionary act," creates an ever-present tension throughout the play, broken only in places by the pair's humor.
The play does a fine job of layering friendship, race relations and just the faintest hint of homoeroticism. Derrick and Jeremy are charismatically acted by Lloyd Burnett '04 and John-David Schriffen '06, respectively, and play off each other well. Derrick has these subtle homosexual mannerisms while Jeremy is the stereotypical alpha-male type -- though by the end of the play, the audience has more doubts as to Jeremy's orientation.
The third play, "Sunshine," set in some previous era in the American backwoods, was a finely acted but often awkward look into domestic life and the desire to escape it. Charlotte and Evan, a dim-witted lumberjack, live with their son who was badly mutilated in a kitchen fire under Evan's watch. Charlotte never forgave Evan and initiated an affair with Jesse, a smarter, richer man whom she met at a supermarket. Charlotte never tells Jesse about her son and plans to run off with him.
The part of Evan, the tragic husband, was played well by Luis-Alejandro Dinnella-Borrego '07. With Evan's thick European accent, his obvious lack of brains, his guilt over the accident and the way he dotes on Charlotte, the audience cannot help but feel sorry for him. Karisa Bruin '05 and Russell Herman '06, who play Charlotte and Jesse respectively, are also good actors, which is especially evident in the play's final scenes.
Lighting and sound were used effectively throughout "Sunshine." When Charlotte sings to the mutilated baby, a red light is shined on the crib. When characters walk outside in the woods, ominous music is played, and both effects create a sordid feel to the play. The Frost Playwriting Festival was established in 1950 after a gift from Eleanor Louise Frost. The competition is open annually to original, previously unproduced one-act plays written by currently- enrolled Dartmouth undergraduates.
The winning playwrights receive cash awards, and their plays are produced by the department in the spring. This year's winning playwrights were Andrew Friedenthal '05 for "Complex Mathematics in the Backyard," Guensley R. Delva '04 for "Fourth and Goal" and J.Grant Rafter III '04 for "Sunshine."
