"The Wake" is a complex web of drama

By Julie Armstrong     12/4/08 6:00pm

Students taking a break from studying this weekend by sitting down in front of the T.V. for some cathartic viewing might as well replace that Lifetime movie with a visit to the Martel College Commons. But even among the Spirit Committee's decorations, they'd better not expect to find Christmas cheer.From death to alcoholism to arguments over rape and domestic abuse, Martel's new student-written play by Brown College senior Klara Wojtkowska, co-directed with Martel senior Tony Parce, progresses like ten melancholy country songs combined into one.and translated from Polish.

Wojtkowska seems to have felt the need to identify every possible relationship between any two characters in the play, including several characters the audience never sees, and then to inspect each interaction under a microscope. The results are not pretty, especially since the four siblings' problems make Faulkner's characters look like the Cleaver family. The considerable redundancy of their hopelessly dysfunctional and profane rants allows the play to surpass the two-hour mark, making it about twice as long as it needs to be. Deeply emotional and philosophical discussions convey a meta-plot that spans a lifetime, and the estranged siblings slowly and awkwardly pull more and more skeletons from the closet - or the liquor cabinet - as they near the event that has brought them together in the first place: their mother's funeral.

Most of the action takes place in the last hour. Because the audience will have difficulty sitting through a family epic whose emotional depth dwarfs the tiny stage without providing much dynamic activity to fill it, it is helpful that the language flows lyrically in its best moments and at least makes sense in its worst. Revelations, insights and spells of dry humor sprinkle the play and help keep the audience's attention where the hyperbolic plot cannot.

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The actors have put noticeable effort into the production, first and foremost by memorizing a whopping number of lines. A role in a highly dramatic student-authored play is a challenge, and they clearly take their parts very seriously. The weakness, however, appears in the one-dimensionality of their performances.

Shepherd School graduate student Kris Wettstein successfully conveys older brother Michael's dry, cowardly wit, but he maintains the same tone throughout the entire play. The character reveals past horrors and receives crushing emotional blows from his sisters with a look of distaste and a stiffness of gesture that seem shallow compared to the defensive guilt they attempt to express.

Martel freshman Elena White aggressively portrays the bitter and formerly suicidal sister, Sarah; unfortunately, she does not always need to. Sarah analyzes her truly disturbing feelings of hatred for the benefit of her siblings like a detective solving a mystery, complete with detached pacing and pointing. This attempt to appear emotionally numb prevents this "evil" sister from coming across even as cold, and thereby makes her unconvincing.

Eva, played by Martel freshman Marielle Schweickart, suffers from the opposite problem of inconsistency, especially during her drinking scenes. At times, her slow progression into and out of intoxication is clever and convincing; at others, however, she launches into crazed tangents that appear more likely to be induced by amphetamines than alcohol. Sometimes she seems to have forgotten altogether that she is drunk.

Co-director Parce is by far the best actor on stage, probably in part because he has the pleasure of playing the most entertaining character. He loses himself in schizophrenic David, managing to make Wojtkowska's most poetically far-out lines touching instead of unintentionally humorous.

One final actor worth mentioning is Wojtkowska herself, who does not appear on stage but whose voice is featured twice in startling voiceovers that create the most surreal and original moments of the play. Wojtkowska's articulation and characterization are perfect, and they make up for the possibility that the voiceovers will pull viewers out of the world of the play.

The attempt to fit so much content into "The Wake" leaves unattended details for the birds. The greatest of these is the age of the characters. Although they look and behave like 20- or 30-somethings, they eventually reveal that they are middle-aged or older, which the play does not make remotely apparent. Additionally, Eva brings home groceries in Whole Foods bags despite being broke, wears a 2007 high school varsity sport sweatshirt and gets drunk on Schnapps that looks like water.

It is, of course, not the realism of the details, but the questions raised about society and family that the directors want to emphasize. Viewers who focus on the play's messages will be able to overlook many of its flaws; those who require greater suspension of disbelief will not.

In general, "The Wake" would seem more appropriate as a novel than as a two-hour play. Its emotional insights and intellectualism abound and astound, but the number of relationship issues and dramatic events covered simply do not fit into the format or time available, even in the guise of tortured discussions among bereaved siblings.

Wojtkowska is clearly a talented writer, and her semi-successful crafting of a great deal of confused content into a production is a solid effort and worth its free price of admission. In addition to its opening night on Thursday, Dec. 4, at 8 p.m., the show runs on Saturday at 7 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m. It might, at least, encourage the audience to tell their loved ones they care, which makes it appropriate for the season, after all.

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