By MELANIE ARMSTRONG
melanie@du2.byu.edu
Nothing happens during 'The Bald Soprano.' There is no plot. No one dies or falls in love or changes in any way. But the lack of plot did not prevent six BYU students from winning a state competition for their interpretation of the Eugene Ionescos's absurd comedy.
The winners of the 4-A state drama competition performed their production of 'The Bald Soprano' for a BYU audience Thursday. The fifty-minute comedy, directed by Chris Brower, won a first place award at state competition in April. Claire Wilkins and Nate Keith also won Best Acting awards.
'The Bald Soprano' features six characters. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Nate Keith and Rachel Witham) are typical English folk living in a typical English home in a suburb of London. They argue over everything from whether doctors should die if their patients do to whether a ringing doorbell means someone is at the door.
One such domestic dispute is reconciled just as Mr. and Mrs. Martin (Tom Hiatt and Claire Wilkins) arrive for dinner. After sitting on the couch, Mr. Martin remarks to his wife that she looks familiar. Through a lengthy and laughable dialogue, the couple determines that they are indeed married. The absurd situation is nearly believable thanks to the superb acting abilities of Hiatt and Wilkins.
The final unlikely couple is the Fire Chief (Ryan Barnett) and Mary the Maid (Kathryn Robinson). The Chief's 'experimental fable' is so absurd it's laughable, just like the shiny red hat and yellow trench coat which he refuses to remove.
Mary is anything but maid-like. Robinson is charming, but slightly ridiculous as she glides around the stage on roller-blades. Her melodramatic poem, 'The Fire' inspires her lover, the Fire Chief, and amuses the audience.
After Mary is shoved out of the room during her recitation and the Chief goes off to fight a fire that will occur in 'three quarters of an hour and sixteen minutes,' the four characters explode into dramatic nonsense. Their lines are nearly proverbial, but mostly illogical. 'Without money one can buy anything,' said one character while another incessantly repeated, 'Cockatoos! Cockatoos!'
The play climaxes in purposeless passion. The characters holler and dance, reciting only words. The lines have no content, nor do they progress the plot. Finally, the four characters link in a human train reciting: 'It's not that way, it's over here.'
In the end, perhaps the audience felt as Mrs. Martin: 'How curious that is. How bizarre! It is indeed possible after all!'