URI prepares 'engrossing' version of 'Small Tragedy'

10/15/08 - The University of Rhode Island Theatre Department's production of Craig Lucas' "Small Tragedy" is an engrossing play that combines real world drama set against a production of "Oedipus the King."This play-within-a-play revolves around six characters as they rehearse for their production of "Oedipus."

The story of Oedipus is not just an incidental part of the play; the lines spoken from Sophocles' play often act as foreshadowing.

"Small Tragedy" is set during the mid 1990s and Oedipus is explicitly stated as a metaphor for America. The characters relate Oedipus' blindness to America's ignorance of the war in Bosnia during the 1990s. However, it is not much of a stretch to find similarities to America's current situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That is not to say that the play is overly political- though there are plenty of moments that are critical of America. Such as one character, the Bosnian Hakija, played by Ben Grills, describing an American as being "blind to your own tragedy, not to mention anyone else's."

The character Fanny, played by Autum Gillette, starts off seeming like a stereotypical "stupid American" by saying lines such as "Yugoslavia's part of Europe?" and "I didn't know there were atheist Muslims!"

However, rather than coming off as an insulting stereotype, the ditzy Fanny is usually just played up for light laughs, with rest of the characters poking fun at her youthful mistakes. The play uses her and fellow inexperienced actor Christmas, played by JonPaul Rainville, as the comedic relief.

Christmas' dyslexia is also a great reoccurring gag, as it makes him screw up his lines and rearrange sentences for a comedic result. One scene sees him turning the lines of the blind prophet Tiresias into the backward babbling of Yoda.

Though there are comedic moments, the play is ultimately very dark- as would be expected from a play focusing on the dual tragedies of Oedipus and the Bosnian Genocide. Christmas' retelling of Hakija's description of horrors of Bosnia is a gut-wrenching and emotional scene. The finale of the play- which I won't spoil here- was equally powerful, even bringing some members of the audience to tears.

Part of what makes these tragic moments so difficult to watch is the strong connection the audience comes to feel to the characters. All six characters are well developed and well acted out.

Ben Grills' performance of Hakija is particularly outstanding. It reminded me of Christian Slater's performance as Patrick Bateman in "American Psycho." This is due to the characters' similar portrayals of hidden darkness mixed with suaveness- as well as Gillette's cadence and mannerisms, which are reminiscent of Slater's Bateman.

The only flaw in "Small Tragedy" occurs during the scenes where groups of characters talk over one another and attempt have simultaneous conversations. The multiple conversations usually stop and stop start so only one conversation is heard, which leaves one group of actors awkwardly frozen in time.

When the conversations are actually occurring simultaneously, it becomes very difficult to follow either conversation, let alone both. These scenes always left me with the feeling I missed something.

However, these scenes are infrequent and do not really take away from the quality in the rest of the play.

"Small Tragedy" is being performed at the Fine Arts Center Oct. 16 through the 18 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 19 at 3 p.m