It's not every day that a college-age theater group has the opportunity to actually speak with the writer of the play they are producing. But on Jan. 17 of this year, the directors of "Laughing Wild" and their team had the opportunity to meet the award-winning playwright Christopher Durang at The Julliard School in New York City, where he currently teaches. It seems as though the meeting paid off because the production does Durang's play justice. The show, which closes tonight, offers the viewer over-the-top antics and moments of genuine feeling.
In the style of writing that has made him famous, Durang draws upon run-of-the-mill wackos as his central characters. The character of Woman, played by Sarah Sirota '04, is an often-unemployed mental case, (no, really, she spent time in a mental institution), and the character of Man, played by Cliff Campbell '04, has anxiety disorders. They are two New Yorkers who are thoroughly immersed in the culture of the 1980s. Woman finds direction in life by fantasizing about meeting Andy Warhol, while Man finds purpose in outlandish new-age spiritualism.
Since so much of the script depends on current pop-culture references, it was necessary for the writer to revise it, as he did in 1992 and then again in 1996. But the producers of this show decided to keep the original 1987 text intact and hope that the audience's exposure to history through VH-1's "I Love the '80s" would fill in the gaps.
At the beginning of the show, the audience meets Woman and Man through two lengthy monologues. Woman appears first, then Man. In this format, they have a chance to explain who they are, what they need and, more importantly for the playwright, why we should care. In this no-holds-barred style, the characters explore issues of sexuality, politics, love, hate, loneliness and shame. The stage is set, as it were, for us to feel sympathy for the two characters.
The second act puts our sympathy on hold for a bit as the two interact in a mixture of sketch-comedy, dream sequence and montage. This is truly where we are allowed to laugh wildly. But by the end, the play refocuses the energy back into sympathy for Man and Woman.
Sirota's performance does the playwright's style justice. Her acting is high-energy, idiosyncratic and off-the-wall. She does however lack some of the precision of line-delivery and movement that is so crucial to making Durangian characters come alive.
Actors like Campbell are what keep playwrights like Durang in the business. Not only was he a convincing lunatic, but he was also a sensitive one, able to quickly switch from bellowing lines to gentle whispers. Campbell's attention to detail in his facial expressions, gestures and delivery pay off for this show in a big way. He makes playing his role look effortless, though the audience can see that he has taken time to make deliberate movements and turns of phrase.
Sirota and Campbell star in the show but they also directed it. Each took turn directing the other in his or her monologue. For the second act, dramaturg Kristina Mendicino '04 and the rest of the support team offered a third-eye perspective in rehearsals.
The production team should receive special mention for the support that the stream of Reagan-era sound bytes during the introduction to the play lent to the performance. Original music written by Matt Goodman '06 gives the second act an absurd quality that the script demands. Costuming and stage design fit perfectly. There was never a moment when something distracted my eye or seemed out of place.
In her dramaturgical notes, Mendicino writes: "This play is about alienation -- from each other, from ourselves." But by the end of the play, the sympathy that the actors were able to evoke eliminated any alienation that the audience felt from the characters. Though they are a crazy duo, the characters of Man and Woman became more real and more like us as the script progressed.
