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Volume 3, Issue 17
August 16 - August 29, 2001
Acting Up
Cilicia Yakhlef
CHEKH MATE
@
WARD #6
Buntport Theater
717 Lipan Street, 720-946-1388
Through August 22, $8-$12
Buntport Theater Company opened its new theatre a few months ago to the
applause of nearly everyone who has ever seen one of their productions. The
company, known for its multi-level wit and
intelligently written comedic productions,
has chosen to break new ground in
the new space by staging its adaptation of
Anton Chekhov's Ward #6.
The new ground is serious drama, and
although the group has always shown a
subdued affinity for the genre, this play
represents an evolution of sorts for
Buntport. Chekhov's Ward #6 explores
the stoicism of the human psyche through
warped lenses. Buntport extracts
Chekhov's twisted circularity from the
piece and successfully shifts it into three
dimensions. The effect is both stunning
and numbing. Perfect, really, considering
the nature of the work.
Chekhov was profound, and so is the
Buntport version of Ward # 6. The organization
of the play is intensely anonymous,
with cast members flowing from
one role to another, embodying the one
collective psyche that rests at the center
of Ward #6.
Acting is superbly sublime, and compliments
the work rather than trying to overwhelm
it. Brian Colonna, Hannah
Duggan, Erik Edborg and Erin Rollman
become one singular character going
through differentiated movements, speaking
with different voices, acting out different
life passages, but always with one
unified presence.
Drifting between the ward, and life in the
town outside the ward, Buntport underscores
Chekhov's theme that we "know
nothing of life, but are only theoretically
acquainted with reality." The townsfolk
all seem like larvae in different stages of
development, all destined to follow their
primary instinct to crawl away from the
light. It is the psychotic wretches, however,
who reveal the deepest understanding
of human life.
The ward is clearly the larger prison of
reticent philosophers, while the human
psyche creates cages far more incipient
than any philosophy can explain. The
Stoic's pursuit of "True Happiness" falls
to the Doctor, as he endeavors to inoculate
himself against all human sensitivities.
He believes "joy and suffering are
passing," and it is the disembowelment of
this character that drives the work and the
play.
Aside from phenomenal scripting and
acting, the Buntport group has put together
perhaps its most intriguing set. Walls
of books, casts of various molds we allow
ourselves to fill, barred windows we
could walk around, but choose to hide
behind all become part of the pathological motion of the play. Like some cobweb
strewn cellar, the stage displays the contents
of the human mind and the elements
to which Chekhov alluded in Ward #6.
And everything hangs in the balance. The
elements of the set-- representations of
society's teachings, barriers and molds--
are all suspended from the ceiling by
ropes just waiting to be manipulated by
the cast, or the script, or the breeze. The
effect represents both a grand design and
an accident waiting to reveal itself. This
is an immensely well planned and well
executed set that resonates perfectly with
the work.
There is little in life more disturbing or
deeply moving than a well-crafted piece
of experimental theater. The genre was
meant to explore and expose, and
Buntport has succeeded on both counts.
The group has earned the right to claim
outstanding artistic vision with the production
of this piece of experimental
drama. I strongly recommend this play. A
--Cilicia Yakhlef
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