"Speaking in Tongues," a play by Australian playwright Andrew Bovell and directed by Michael Dean '09, opened Thursday night in the Production Workshop's upstairs space.
The show, partly a psychological thriller and partly the story of several unraveling relationships, chronicles nine characters - played by four actors - as they grapple with their emotions and struggle to live in a world where strangers and intimates are one and the same.
At the beginning of the play, two couples stand in a hotel room having nearly identical conversations. They are all on the verge of cheating on their spouses and are wrought with guilt. At the end of the scene, it is unclear which spouses have gone through with the affairs, but that night catches up with them throughout the play. Jane (Lauren Neal '11) and Leon (Julian Cihi '09), the two who eventually commit adultery, are left by their respective partners, Pete (Dennis Kozee '10) and Sonja (Olivia Olsen '08), who coincidentally almost sleep together that same night.
With their spouses gone, both Jane and Leon bear witness to what they believe are murders. When every actor changes character for the second act, the audience slowly comes to understand the truth and reasoning behind their allegations.
"(Speaking in Tongues) maps an emotional landscape typified by a sense of disconnection and a shifting moral code," Bovell wrote in the author's note. "It's about people yearning for meaning and grabbing onto small moments of hope and humor to combat an increasing sense of alienation."
Bovell accomplishes this in the same minimalist set used in act one - four chairs and two benches that are re-arranged to fit the needs of a given scene. Props are equally scarce. But despite the simplicity of the set, "Speaking in Tongues" is anything but simple.
"The biggest challenge was staging two scenes at same time," said Dean, the show's director. "Just trying to make sure everyone sees it and being able to stage things where it's not just set in someone's living room. The play goes all over the place in terms of setting: living rooms, bars, the bush. That was a real challenge for me, as well as the actors."
The script presented obstacles for the adept and talented cast: two genres, a nonlinear plot and multiple characters played by each actor. The performers - most played two characters, but Kozee played three - had to rise to the challenge of portraying wildly different yet believable roles.
Cihi must exhibit the biggest range to portray the stern detective, Leon, as well as the misunderstood Nick, who is accused of the crime Leon is investigating.
Though Dean contemplated the production for over a year, the entirely student-run production has been in the works for three and a half weeks. While they used a space from PW, the show is not affiliated with a campus group.
