Hinterland

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Theater Review: UC Davis Theater & Dance
Dept.'s "Hinterland"

Is there such a thing as the soul? That’s the question at stake in Artist-in-Residence Lucy Gough’s duo of radio plays, a mostly ingenious presentation of a complex debate in a medium that is at once retro and modern.

Individually titled “Mapping the Soul” and “Hinterland” but combined into one two-part stage performance titled “Hinterland,” each play is about 50 minutes long. While the audience at Wright Hall’s Main Theatre watches, the actors stand onstage in front of microphones, speaking their dialogue in radio-show fashion. Off to the side of the stage, a team of Foley artists creates sound effects to accompany the supposed, but not literal, actions of the characters.

In the first play, “Mapping the Soul,” an anatomist and his assistant dissect a corpse in hopes of finding the exact place that the soul resides. Meanwhile, a scientist named Adam who believes there is no such thing as the soul is knocked out and, in his unconscious state, traverses an underworld which parallels the anatomist’s dissection. Both worlds are observed by the Soul, who perches above, unseen by the characters, and offers singsong insight into his true nature.

The second play, “Hinterland,” follows a similar structure. Scientist Adam and his partner, Eve, are banished to an underworld full of wolves, Sineaters and gravediggers who stalk them and attempt to steal Adam’s soul.

The structure of the performance – a radio show, but performed onstage – takes some getting used to. It’s disorienting at first to watch the actors speaking their lines but not performing any of the accompanying actions, especially because the subject matter is, by its very nature, mysterious and ill-defined. Major concentration is necessary to simply keep up with what the characters are saying and follow the plot. The fact that the play is meant to be almost purely auditory complicates our understanding even further.

Yet there is something delightfully old-fashioned about the whole production. It’s fun to watch the sound effects being created – for the dissection of the corpse, a Foley artist cuts up a head of cabbage, and for a boat paddling, fingers are splashed in a bowl of water. In a nice throwback to the golden days of radio drama, bright red “On Air” signs flash at the start of each play, reminding us that we are witnessing what is normally never seen; that is, the visuals of a radio show.

Modern touches are woven in seamlessly, for the most part. The wolfpackers and chorus in “Hinterland” wear all-black, street-punk getups and the stage is dramatically lit with spotlights and fog. Beat-boxing and rap, though entertaining, are a bit jarring and feel a little out of place.

Ultimately, the cast makes these two very difficult pieces come together. Jorge Morejόn, as the Soul in “Mapping the Soul,” makes a character that could have been lofty and self-righteous endearingly human and just a touch flamboyant (who else could rock those hot-red pumps?). Alongside Morejόn, Brendan Ward and Yana Zhovinsky as Adam and the Assistant deliver powerful yet grounded performances. Kevin Adamski and Alejandro Torres also have amusing rapport as two underlings in “Hinterland.” In a radio show, it’s all about the voice, and each actor brings a distinct flavor to his or her lines.

One wonders if it was really necessary to make radio plays into a stage show, since the actors fit so well into the radio-style writing and the stage is not utilized as it would be in a regular visual production. But perhaps to choose one or the other would have been too simple for such an ever-changing entity as the human soul.

Posted by Robin Migdol at 3:17 PM