Rice Players Presents an Unsettling Mystery
The Mystery Plays presents us with the notion that there is much in life that cannot be explained. Our expectations are complicated by forces beyond our understanding, whether it is fate, the supernatural or simply human nature. Through the mysterious tales of two individuals, we are led to wonder whether any meaning can be taken from life's tragedies. This is heavy, challenging material to tackle, and, for the most part, this production succeeds.
The Rice Players take a unique spin on staging by transforming the stage at Hamman Hall into a black box, with the play performed in the round. This lends a certain intimacy to the performance, allowing the actors to confront the audience face-to-face with the drama. Though the stage design is simple, it is utilized extraordinarily well. The masterful lighting design transforms the set into different worlds when called for. The simple stage picture of an actress seated under a ladder is made beautiful and haunting, allowing us to believe she is reliving her childhood memories under a familiar tree.
Though the atmosphere is set up superbly, the acting is not quite on par throughout. The Mystery Play's dialogue is difficult to make sound natural, and only some of the cast can pull off the delivery. A key scene on a train at the beginning slightly misses the mark due to the actors, Brown College seniors John Mendell and Ben Seidensticker, who add strange inflections and pauses and overall sound too staged. They are unable to immediately pull us into the story, yet they do manage to build the tension and succeed in pulling us in by the end.
The large cast seems unnecessary at times, and it very well could have been to the show's benefit if more people were double cast. Jones College senior Carter Spires' performance in thematically similar roles, including the narrator and a detective, helps keep the acts from feeling disconnected, which would have been better achieved if other actors had been similarly cast. The standout performance is by Baker College sophomore Alyssa Dugar as the attorney revisiting her hometown. Dugar's performance is the saving grace of the show's action, due to the sensitivity and emotional weight she gives the role, as well as her interactions with the figment of her brother played by the skilled McMurtry College freshman Juan Sebastian Cruz.
The end result is a thoroughly intriguing, and at times inspiring, exploration of life's mysteries and how we must face them. Though the production is very good, some shortcomings in the acting prevent The Mystery Plays from reaching its full potential.
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