THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 29, 1996 TAG: 9608270134
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: MONTAGUE GAMMON III
LENGTH: 66 lines
The Virginia Wesleyan theater students who produced and directed ``Dark of the Moon'' certainly deserve full marks for their courage. This is one of those shows that appeals most strongly to the friends and relations of those responsible for it; when the curtain falls, they enthusiastically cheer the efforts of these determined performers.
The play dramatizes a tragic romance between mountain girl Barbara Allen and a young male witch, who marries her and tries to become human. It is first and foremost a mood piece, set in the Southern backwoods where primitive superstition blends with rough Christianity. The watcher should become caught up in the earthy paganism of the unlettered hill folk while an aura of the eerie supernatural and the unashamedly sensual should pervade every moment of the show.
For all the talent and energy that went into this production, it never did find its unique voice nor did it envelop the audience with the sort of compelling atmosphere that would make it clear just why the students chose to stage this play.
The script is more than a half-century old, and seems today like the effort of a couple of Northerners who bore some grudge against the old Confederacy. Actually, the authors were from South Carolina and Alabama, but their vision of Tennessee mountain culture appears unsparingly mean-spirited in its emphasis on the characters' ignorance and prejudice.
The lines they gave their hillbilly creations today sound conspicuously contrived.
Phrases like ``He lose he bargain'' (for ``if he loses his bargain''), or ``Eight dollars and that a lot of money!'' followed by a knee slapping guffaw, just don't roll naturally off the tongues of these young performers. It's always obvious that these young performers are deliberately and carefully articulating these variances from grammatical convention, rather than speaking with the ease of folks at home with the dialect.
What isn't obvious is just what motivates some of the characters, other than that the author wrote something for them to say.
A pace best termed studied and deliberate doesn't make the dialogue any more believable. One has ample time to consider how the conflict between the witch and the human could be a metaphor for the clash of the romantic with the mundane, but one is not swept into the world of people who sow and reap by the signs of the supposedly infallible zodiac nor into that of spirits who ride the backs of eagles over the moonlit mountains.
As the play reaches its climax, its[sic] clear that directors C.J. Brock and Amy D. Insley have learned how to manipulate some fundamental elements of the show's strong theatricality. They use the swelling volume of choral passages, the insistent rhythm of a revival meeting, and the hysteria of the doomed young heroine to some visceral effect.
Looking back on the show, they may realize how important it is to pay attention to details, such as the size of a purportedly weighty apple barrel, the look of an unchopped woodpile, or the distinction between a rifle and a
Several actors are familiar from other Wesleyan productions, and had firmly established their abilities before this show. Brian P. Monahan plays the young warlock John, and Jami McManama has the role of Barbara Allen.
Jason Stiles and Kat Rosensteel appear as two witches. Briana Muggli takes the part of Barbara's mother, and Colin W. Decker II is cast as Preacher Haggler.
If the staging of ``Dark of the Moon'' didn't inspire either pity or terror to the degree one might want, it doubtless served as a valuable learning experience for all those involved. That, after all, is the real reason it was produced. by CNB