What I liked
The first piece of this double offering, DEATH UNIT, is of a quality such that one could reasonably expect it anthologized in a representative volume of great one-act plays. The performances are good, especially that of Campbell, such that the scene keeps moving with the help of the director’s good blocking of action in a limited space.
The space is simply one basement chamber of a prison where two men are transporting a cadaver, yet Robert Gardner fills it with meaning. The elevator won’t call down; there are flies (can you imagine?) and an eager flyswatter; and a pocket flask of spirits, et al, all adding resonant detail not only to the scene but to deeper levels of story. While what unfolds plays on the somber and frightening in the situation, it also seeks and finds the humor—and by play’s end, one is left thinking how could it be otherwise.
LOST VOICES follows as a moral tale reaching past allegory to surface raw testament of human outrage through three women. The extra degree of difficulty Rodney Nugent takes on in his one-act is positing an extra-terrestrial court of judgment. The reason for this should seem obvious: intelligent beings alien to our world would not have at all participated in human history.
Jejem, McAlister and Comer all give very fine performances the equal to any good theater you have or will see in relating their human stories. The alien character, however, presented a problem to this viewer. The objective regard of an other-worldly intelligence that shares values with our own “humanity” seems to play around a strident key. The distant regard all too often brought to bearing witness to foreign abominations via TV media, this would seem more the allegorical reference. What is the intimate investment here of such an advanced race of beings; and if further advanced, how is it they consider familiar solutions? These questions are at best elided over with the moral of the tale rather rushed as in some of Rod Serling’s teleplays.
Nevertheless, the body of the play with its heart is the women’s testimonies. Although Helena brings in a “fourth character,” whose participation ought to land more appreciably, the work as a whole is highly affecting and often charged. The audience I saw the play with was visibly and audibly reached. One member openly wept while others engaged in stretching or grooming behaviors in search of some insulating distance. The voices raised are, in truth, found.
If you are looking through festival offerings for satisfying experiences, shows that thoughtfully follow you out of the theater, this you should consider adding to your schedule as one to watch.
What I didn't like
The first, by Gardner, is well wrought and subject to minimal constructive input (although there was the technical issue of a too dim light front stage right). Those for Nugent’s are integral and posed above.
My overall impression
This is an extremely considered and well rehearsed presentation of two one-act plays. Each lingers in the mind to be more worthwhile than some full length presentations.
