"The Cherry Sisters Revisted" Directed by Cara Gabriel Katzen Arts Center Nov. 9-11 $5
The American University Department of Performing Arts presents the world premiere of "The Cherry Sisters Revisited" this weekend. The play, written by Dan O'Brien, raises sincere and provocative questions through its vaudevillian comedy.
As the house lights go down, Effie (Cynthia Caul, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences) asks, "Do you believe in ghosts? You in the audience? Because you're looking at one."
The play proceeds to tell the story of five sisters and their road to vaudeville fame - or infamy, as the case may be. As they begin their quest for stardom in 1892, the sisters romanticize even the grossest ills of New York City; but as the play ends in 1935, the sisters' perspective has sharply changed.
Director Cara Gabriel, an assistant professor of theater in DPA, said she finds the meta-theatrical nuances of the play fascinating. She also said it is a stylistically different play than most of what DPA has done before, since the actors are required to act in vaudevillian style.
The fearless writing style of the play lends itself to archetypal characters that in turn demand fearlessness from the actors, Gabriel said. Gabriel also explained that over-the-top, purposefully bad acting is an important component of the play, allowing the actors to showcase a very different talent from the "living room drama" that characterizes most modern shows.
"The challenge [of the play] is more for the audience [than the actors]," said Tessa Raden, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences who plays Addie.
"If they think we're terrible then they've missed the boat entirely. It's a difficult thematic play, and it's difficult to communicate that to the audience," she said.
The play casts interesting parallels between the sisters' father and their manager, both named Pops and both played by Joshua Dick, a freshman in CAS. Gabriel explained this is done in part to communicate that men are held more responsible for the objectification of women. Furthermore, Dick's chilling portrayal sets in motion the unrest that Effie and the audience experience throughout the performance.
Caul's performance stands out throughout the play as a particularly engaging character whose asides help to frame events, giving them context and making it much more than just a merry jaunt through the lives of five na've, somewhat dimwitted sisters.
Raden's performance is sarcastic and brutally honest, making her the most comical character because of her witty and occasionally cruel comments about her sisters. The understated, seemingly innocent innuendoes are consistently hilarious, offsetting the seriousness of the questions raised by the play.
Emily Dickens, a senior in CAS, plays Ella. Dickens' character is more astute than even her sisters suspect, and she sheds a truthful and revealing light on the events of the play. She also provides an especially innocent perspective in the somewhat corrupt showbiz atmosphere that surrounds her.
As Ella is taken advantage of during the play, so is Lizzie, a ditzy, hopelessly romantic girl played by Brett Shear-Heyman, a senior in the School of Communication.
However it is not only the weak, mindless characters that are victims of society's cruelty. The artifice of the theater lead to the implication of the audience, who are eventually blamed for the girls' tragedy, Gabriel said.
Gabriel explained one such question that especially struck her. In the play, Pops says, "There's only one thing Americans love more than success, and that's failure."
"In the end I was forced to ask myself whether the United States really is a nation that so enjoys the failure of others. Can we not revel in other people's successes as well? Do we really see others' failures as our own successes?" Gabriel said.
The production has faced some challenges due to the experimental space in which it is presented. This is especially evident in the difficulty of the performers to communicate changes in setting, both spatially and chronologically. However, this is only one aspect of a particularly interesting and pleasurable performance.
The production will run Nov. 9 through 11. Each show will begin at 8 p.m. in the Katzen Arts Center Studio Theatre.
