“On Tuesday, April 11, the Radford University Dance and Theater Department put on a performance of The Importance of Being Earnest.” Photo from: http://roundtherocktx.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/maxresdefault-2.jpg
On Tuesday, April 11, the Radford University Dance and Theater Department put on a performance of TheImportance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. The play was performed in Pridemore Playhouse and was directed by Wesley Young. The main male characters Algernon Moncrieff and John Worthing were played by actors Christopher Phillips and Drew Callahan respectively. The main female characters Gwendolyn Fairfax and Cecily Cardew were played by actresses Alicia Sable and Megan Ward respectively. All the actors and actresses in the play, whether supporting or main, played their roles extremely well, drawing several laughs as a result of the comedic script as well as their natural acting abilities and charisma. The sets on stage were grand. At the end of the first act, the front part of the stage lowered (with one of the actors still purposefully on the stage and seated in a chair) and disappeared completely into the floor. Audience members were surprised if not delighted by this. The play was performed several more nights, from Thursday, April 13th through Saturday, April 15th.
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You’ve bought your books. You’ve stocked up on dorm food, double-checked your class schedule and triple-checked your class schedule. Everything seems set for another semester at Radford University.
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The curtain goes up again as the Radford theater department announces its fall season.
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Children fight, and parents generally accept this as inevitable. However, parents are calm, collected and mature. Or are they? This year, Radford University’s Theatre Department challenged this notion in their production of Yasmina Reza’s play, “God of Carnage.”
The audience laughed, the characters cried, and anything even resembling manners was left at the door as the characters worked their way through what turned out to be a 90-minute argument.
Upon finding that their son lost two teeth from being hit in the face with a stick, Veronica (Theresa Mantiply) and Michael (Jason Krage) Novak invite the parents of the attacker, Annette (Lyndsay Halpin) and Alan (Felix Birdie) Raleigh, over to talk. Everything begins in a normal way with the two sets of parents, both with 11-year-old sons, that just want to resolve the issue. But in minutes the conversation goes from calm to furious and tense.
“God of Carnage” doesn’t just show what happens when adults become reduced to the level of their children, it shows them taking sides with whoever is most agreeable at the time. The argument cycles through being couple vs. couple, gender vs. gender to person vs. everyone else.
"God of Carnage." Photo acquired from Radford's Department of Theatre and Cinema.
The play addresses how parental attitudes might affect children and insinuates that, while parents pretend to care about their children and other people’s problems, they really are only interested in their own problems. This results in the drowning of a cellphone, excessive rum consumption, and the violent death of a bowl of tulips.
The cast played their characters with the intensity of people who really can’t stand to be in the same room together. Although it’s not immediately obvious, Annette’s nervous stomach and loathing for Alan’s constant cellphone use was well portrayed. The gagging and vomiting really helped, too.
Alan’s disregard for everyone around him, including his wife, was also very obvious. He switched between phone and face-to-face conversation seamlessly, as if it was all the same to him.
Michael’s transformation from a nice, funny guy, to an uncaring, ridiculous person was dramatic and unsettling. The actor made it apparent, but somehow still managed to prevent the character from seeming like a total monster.
Veronica was perfect at holding her holier-than-thou attitude throughout the whole production. While she yelled and fought just as much as everyone else, she refused to consider herself on the same level as the rest of the characters. Her dedication to this role showed, even while screaming obscenities at her husband and guests.
The cast did a marvelous job sticking to their roles and made the play come alive. No one seemed to tire during the performance, despite the lack of an intermission. Altogether, it was an enjoyable experience. The performance really explained why the program said, “Kids will be kids, but grownups can be, oh, so much worse.”
