INVITES YOU AND A GUEST TO A SPECIAL ADVANCE SCREENING OF
B r i a n Pa u l e t t e
around the imaginary wall separating them. When Damon’s younger sister, Chantel (the very good Janae Nicole Mitchell, a third-year MFA student), shows up for a visit, she may have a motive for finally reaching out. They converse from opposite sides of the stage, staring out at the audience. It’s a touching scene, though projections of their faces high above them, perhaps to augment their having to speak through a barrier, distract. (They might be useful to those in the nosebleed section of the Copaken, which is a vast venue for such an intimate play.) In scene changes between the prison cells and the priest’s office, raised flooring slides on tracks, accompanied by a clang of metal doors, leg chains and handcuffs (sound design by Joseph Concha), reflecting the cold prison environment and its regimentation. Protesters, too — for and against Damon’s execution — can be heard outside, and other prisoners’ voices rise when Damon, frustrated and angry, tries to “shake things up.” “We’ve been given more time but we’re just sitting here,” he says. “We gotta do something.” But there’s not much to do here but wait, with as much sense of self as possible. —Deborah Hirsch
Matt Leonard as Capt. Stanhope
hardened temperament clashes with Raleigh’s naïve enthusiasm. Spencer D. Christensen makes a sizable impression in a small role as the cheerful Capt. Hardy, and Charles Fugate’s Lt. Osborne is tender and paternal. Matthew Rapport explores every nuance in his portrayal of the preternaturally steady Trotter, lending the second lieutenant a voice as full and butter-rich as Trotter’s figure. His banter with company cook Mason (Joseph Fournier), over some ration meat of dubious Journey’s End digs into World provenance, seems to lighten the men’s load. It’s one of the frequent funny moments in SherWar I with grace and wit. riff’s script, wringing wry British humor from s the World War I centennial approaches, grit and catastrophe. As the forced propriety continues, however, we sense the strain behind memorials and monuments take on the smiles. When two of the men are assigned greater significance. But the distant solemnity to a probable suicide mission, Trotter proclaims of cold marble and bronze leads to an uncomit “a damn nuisance,” and his resignation hits fortable question: Are we remembering the us harder than any breakdown. actual people? Anxiety boils under the surface instead, Kansas City Actors Theatre and UMKC Theatre restore our proximity to the fighting men made notably manifest in Uldarico Sarmiento’s smart, visually textured scenic design. with their co-production of Journey’s End at the Devorah Kengmana’s evocative lighting deNational World War I Museum. Playwright R.C. sign is similarly attuned to Sherriff, himself a veteran of the needs of the production, the Great War, offers a comJourney’s End suggesting dazzling flashes plicated and compassionate Through March 2 at the from exploding shells in one look at the lives of British National World War I Museum moment while allowing us to officers near the front line. 100 West 26th Street, appreciate the gentle blush Sherriff’s play chronicles 816-235-6222, kcactors.org of candlelight. And there’s war’s banalities as much as room in Michael Heuer’s dyits battles. All three acts take namic sound design for haunting a cappella place in a dugout in the trenches of Saint-Quentin, France, where the officers of C Company war songs and the atmospheric thrum of distant German whiz-bangs and bombs. swap stories. Intelligence suggests a German The realism on display underscores Sherattack is imminent, and as each quiet hour riff’s ambivalent attitude toward combat. Like passes, the tension mounts, the men winding their watches or counting down the minutes Stanhope, the playwright rejects hero worship and glorified depictions of war, choosing inaloud. Director Mark Robbins submerges his tal- stead to focus on the strength of the relationented cast in a pressure cooker of nervous en- ships among these men. It may be the highest ergy. Jacob Aaron Cullum finds the earnestness compliment I can pay these actors to say that in Raleigh, the newcomer eager to please Capt. it’s hard, at the end of the play, to picture the Stanhope, his schoolboy idol. Matt Leonard is men of C Company cast in bronze. They’re just men — capable of heroism, yes, but also explosive as Stanhope, a young commander cowardice and vice, love and longing. —L.C. with the cynicism (and liver damage) of a much older man. He’d sooner stomach a bottle of whiskey than an ounce of hero worship, and his E-mail feedback@pitch.com
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Trench FeaT
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