The strangeness of time is a concept that almost all Reed students are familiar with. Sunny days out on the lawn make it seem like we’ve collectively blinked and it’s two weeks from Renn Fayre, but long conferences where there’s more silence than talking can make fifty minutes feel like a lifetime.
It’s no surprise, then, that the Reed College Theatre Department has chosen to put on two works that deal greatly with the strangeness of time for their spring offering: The Bald Soprano, directed by Assistant Professor Kate Bredeson, and The Lesson, directed by thesis candidate Gracie Rittenberg. Both works were written by Eugène Ionesco, considered by many to be one of the founders of the French Avant-Garde movement in the mid-twentieth century.
“On the page there is a rhythm to the language, an orchestral rise and fall to scenes, and a beautiful circular structure — but these lines are meant to be spoken by real people moving around in space, and Ionesco’s artistry soars when embodied on stage,” says Bredeson, on The Bald Soprano. “The Absurdist sense of time is felt even more acutely in real time, particularly in a play where the clock chimes out of sync.”
It’s true that the clock — designed by Associate Professor Peter Ksander in his role as Set, Sound, and Lighting Designer — plays a central role in both The Bald Soprano and The Lesson. An old grandfather clock, it provides a central focus for both the stage and the play, and is one of the first things the eye is drawn to as The Bald Soprano begins. Its arrows have fallen down, but it chimes repeatedly, drawing attention immediately to the dissolution of time in Ionesco’s works.
The Bald Soprano offers a surrealist look at 1950s London suburbia, taking place over the course of a dinner party between two couples, the Smiths and the Martins. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (played by Sean Key-Ketter and Helene Wierzbicki, respectively) host Mr. and Mrs. Martin (played by Jake Gonnella and Kate Cassidy Hilts) at their home, attended by their maid, Mary (Alex McCracken). Additionally, Mary and the two couples are unexpectedly joined by their local Fire Captain, played by Colin Trevor, whose work in both productions comprises part of his thesis in acting.
However, these stereotypical dinner party pleasantries are more than would be presumed, with the addition of Ionesco’s absurdism and idiosyncratic sense of humor. “Are you depressed?” asks one character. “No, he’s bored shitless,” replies another bitingly, striking a nerve in the suburban stereotype the play engages with.
McCracken, though, absolutely steals the show as Mary: their turn as a brazen maid is hilarious, and well worth the $3 entry price alone. Their black velvet choker with a flower-shaped diamante charm — a product of Visiting Assistant Professor Chloe Chapin’s costume design — is a brilliant touch, too. Speaking about the necklace and the relevance to the character of Mary, McCracken said “I’ve been associating the shape [of the flower] with the idea of the clock as well. I really like the idea of some kind of connection, though not necessarily cooperation, between Mary and the clock — I feel they both serve organizing functions in the strangeness of the Smith’s everyday lives.”
The Lesson, too, deals with similar concepts of time and language, albeit in a very different way. It centers around a visit that a student (played by Abby Watt) pays to her professor (played by Colin Trevor) at his house, and deals with the conflicts that arise when she isn’t learning as fast as he would like her to be.
Rittenberg’s direction of Watt and Trevor in their space is exquisite, and the addition of a spinning stool is particularly clever on the part of Ksander, who also worked on the set design for The Lesson — Watt’s engagement with the stool really adds to the dynamic nature and movement of the play itself.
Initially, the Professor is just communicating to the Student the material she must know for her exams, but their verbal interactions soon expand to an interaction much more intense and dangerous. The Professor’s language has a great effect on the Student, especially after she begins to develop a toothache that only worsens as the play continues.
“This play, lacking objectively valid characters and a plot, reminds us of the harm language can inflict,” says Rittenberg. “This play reminds us that words are violent.”
These production of Ionesco’s works serves as a reminder to be careful with our words and with each other, in and outside of the classroom. The Bald Soprano and The Lesson both allow a space for Ionesco’s manipulation of language to shine through, leading the audience to think about what language is and what it really can do. As Bredeson puts it: “We are in a campus moment where words are thought by some to be daggers, and by others to be harmless — do we think language is the same as physical violence? Where do words and weapons intersect; where do they differ? What does Ionesco offer us as a community who revels in wordplay, and where and when does language cross a line?”
The Bald Soprano and The Lesson will show tonight, April 17, and Saturday, April 18, at 7:30 PM in the Diver Studio Theatre. Tickets are $3 for members of the Reed community, $5 for non-Reed students or senior citizens, or $7 for general admission.