The AU Players are performing two complex stories of love, loss and betrayal this weekend in the Katzen Studio Theater. For fans of avant-garde theater, "Crave" is a refreshing look at the thought processes behind human motivation. For a more traditional look at life and love, check out "Closer," the play of popular movie fame.
'Closer'
If you've seen the movie adaptation of "Closer," forget it before you see the AU Players' version of Patrick Marber's work. Where the movie offers a two-hour shouting match, the AU Players' performance shows the audience a much more subtle and intimate look at the complex interactions among the play's four characters.
"Closer" is a story made of a series of love triangles. The characters, even when supposedly in love, seem to torture each other. Each one is focused on his or her own search for happiness and settles for a relationship when they think that it might be the key.
The story focuses on the relationships between Dan and Alice and between Anna and Larry - and their various dalliances with each other's partners. Dan (Marc Thuot, a freshman in the Kogod School of Business and School of International Service) is already in a relationship with troubled ex-stripper Alice (Jessamyn Fuller, a senior in the School of Public Affairs) when he decides he is in love with Anna (Catherine Bullard, a sophomore in SIS), a photographer. Dan has a strange way of showing his affection: He plays a joke on her by posing as her in an online sex chat room and setting up a meeting with Larry (Kyle Encinas, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences). Much to Dan's dismay, Anna and Larry fall in love. What happens next is a four-year-long series of the characters going back and forth between each other in the interest of love and revenge.
"Closer" is a glimpse into the complicated motives behind relationships. Though earnest and often angry, the play does not take itself too seriously. Its funny moments do a good job of showing that even the worst situations can be laughable. Encinas (Larry) particularly shines in the serious and funny parts of the show. His delivery in both situations is winningly calculated and believable.
Alice says at the opening of Anna's photography exhibition, "The people in the photos are sad and alone, but the pictures make the world seem beautiful. So, the exhibition is reassuring, which makes it a lie, and everyone loves a big fat lie." The characters, too, are sad and alone. Unlike Anna's exhibition, though, "Closer" does little to reassure the audience that the world is beautiful. The audience is left wondering just what in the play is a lie - but then, everyone loves a big fat lie.
'Crave'
Roddy Flynn, a senior in SPA and executive director of the AU Players, said the organization's goal with these productions is to challenge actor and audience. The ensemble truly hits its target with "Crave," an extremely complex work by playwright Sarah Kane.
The play is a series of interactions between characters A, B, C and M. Though in some ways seemingly unrelated, the characters' stories focus on love, loss and internal struggle.
The play does not have a centralized plot and forces actor and audience to make assumptions about how the characters are related to one another. Consistently, A, played by Ryan Tanner-Read, a freshman in CAS, and M, played by CAS sophomore Jacqueline Salamack, embody the older roles implied by the stories, conversations and images that make up the play. B, played by CAS sophomore Jason Fish, and C, played by Bunni Murphy, a sophomore in SIS, often appear younger and more immature.
Director David Conison, a sophomore in CAS, had his work cut out for him with "Crave." The work offers no context or even stage direction to begin with. Conison chose to use a simple set that evokes a playground as the backdrop to the beguiling performance. It opens with darkness and the increasing sounds of children's laughter, ended finally by a gunshot.
The playground feel lends the play poignancy in light of the characters' preoccupation with the past. The choice to have them perform in white face paint also helps to clue the audience in to just what may be going on. At times, the characters seem as if they could be ghosts, rehashing their lives over and over, unable to move on.
The actors in "Crave" all deliver truly strong performances. Tanner-Read (A) and Murphy (C) in particular are truly adept at haunting the audience.
"Haunting" is perhaps the best word to describe the experience of "Crave" overall. It will leave audiences puzzling over just what they saw, but they will surely remember it.
"Closer" will be performed today and Saturday at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m. "Crave" will be performed Friday and Sunday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. Performances are $5.
