“Theatre On A Saturday Night”
by Terrence Cain
Last week I saw one of the greatest, funniest, and saddest plays I've ever seen in my life. The story is about a man, a dog, his wife, and the trials and tribulations thereof. The play is called Sylvia; originally written by playwright Albert Ramsdell Gurney Jr. in 1995. You might also recognize other plays A.R. Gurney Jr. created such as The Fourth Wall, Far East, and What I Did Last Summer. Howard College's version of the play was directed by two fellow students of Howard College, Mindy Ralston and Courtney Smith.
The play starts with a man named Greg, played by newcomer Ty Hopper, who has been married for twenty-two years to his wife Kate, played by veteran Howard College theatre actress Amanda Brown. Greg and Kate are high school sweethearts who have been happily married for twenty-two years. At this point in their marriage Greg has become bored with all aspects of life and finds himself in a mid-life crisis.
Now what would you do in this instance? Would you have an affair with a younger woman in her twenties? Or maybe you would go sky diving instead? Of course you could start up a band and do some gigs at the local bar. That might just do the trick. You could even go out and buy yourself a sports car and go cruising down the boulevard. Well you know in your heart of hearts that those things just won't do; especially having an affair because you took those vows to heart and you still love your spouse dearly. So what should you do to give life to a life that has no life at all? Well naturally you just go on out to the park and take home a stray dog home, right? Well that's what Greg exactly did. He went to the park and brought home a hyper-active, wet nosed, cute and cuddly, precocious, furry, flea carrying mutt. Yeesh! So Greg takes this stray dog home in hopes that it will make his life so much better. Now surely nothing could go wrong, right? Everybody loves dogs, right?
Well Sylvia, played by newcomer and fellow Howard College student Lindsey Heckler, is not liked by all those who inhabit this quaint home. Greg's wife Kate absolutely hates Sylvia with a passion when she comes home to find this stray dog in her living room. Kate has had to deal with dogs in her youth, and it wasn't pleasant for her by any stretch of the imagination.
So even though Sylvia is met with negative response from Kate she does her best to communicate nothing but love and affection to her. That, however, is not going to happen if Kate has her way about things. Early on in the play you can see the tensions grow between Greg, Kate, and Sylvia. So after Greg and Kate fight over the new dog Greg decides to take Sylvia out for a walk and goes back to the park where he found her to try and sort things out with his newfound happiness that doesn't seem to make his wife happy at all. At the park Greg meets up with a lively character named Tom, played by another veteran of Howard College theatre Eric Ochoa. Tom gives the worst advice to Greg about his new found dog while he takes his own dog to the park.
As things escalate Greg and Kate's relationship starts to come apart at the seams. Things become a major problem when Kate's friend Phyllis, played also by Mr. Ochoa, comes to the house only to be physically violated by Sylvia. This causes major strife between Greg and Kate, so to try and save their marriage they seek a marriage counselor named Leslie, yet another role played by Mr. Eric Ochoa, who is just as lively as his other character Tom. In her last ditch attempt to rid the family of Sylvia, Kate accepts a once in a life time opportunity to go train for a new job over in England for six months. This does not bode well for Greg and Sylvia.
Greg quickly realizes that Kate's hatred for Sylvia has come to a point of no return and essentially Kate gives him an ultimatum. Their marriage or his dog. This is where things break down and get super heavy. Even though it kills Greg's new found joy he decides to give up Sylvia in order to save his marriage; and even though Kate has held a hatred for Sylvia for the longest time it breaks her heart too. Just as Greg leaves with Sylvia Kate runs out to bring them both back home.
The minimalist set worked really well for the overall look of the play and its characters. There was an abundant usage of good music in the show a well. I heard Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me', the opening theme from Bruce Lee's 'Enter The Dragon' [a great little tune by Lalo Schifrin] that was used for a couple of quarrels between Kate and Sylvia, a Richie Havens tune called 'Looking For A Way To Say Goodbye', and even 'Werewolves Of London' by Warren Zevon was used. I was moved to tears in the dramatic parts and laughed till I cried at the comedic parts. Everything just seemed to worked flawlessly.
Overall I give this play four stars out of five. The only reason it didn't get a five from me was because I felt Eric Ochoa's part as Phyllis, and then Leslie, was too distracting. People seemed to be laughing at the idea of a guy in drag instead of what lines he was delivering as Kate's friend and Leslie the marriage counselor. Other than that one part it was great all the way through. No one fouled their lines up, no one tripped, and the transitions were done extremely well. If this play was playing again this weekend I would see it no matter what was going on in my life.
The only downside to the play was the crowd. People refused to turn off their cells, some dressed like they were going to the local dive bar or strip joint, and there were even some who were rudely talking throughout the play. I even had a guy behind me who thought it was a great idea to put his feet on the back of my seat as well. Other than the unruly crowd this was a great play and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new avenue of entertainment.
I want to give a big thank you to Professor Kirk Davidson, Big Spring's professor of Development Of Motion pictures for inviting me out to see this play. I also want to thank the play directors and all the actors and actresses involved in the play for giving their all. Without them the story would have been dull and lifeless. It can easily be said that more great stories like this need to be put out there for people to see. I truly feel that plays like this are where real entertainment is at today. This is Howard College's blogging machine, over and out!
