"I don't care what it's all about anymore. I just want to know how to live in it."
Doug Grissom's intimate play "So Careless," the University Drama department's latest production, focuses on the harsh struggles life has to offer. Reality plays a major part for everyone involved in the play -- the characters are real people with real problems and real relationships. They beg to be related to.
This gritty reality is primarily illustrated through the starkness of the set. Audience members will find anything but a flashy show -- there are no smoke and mirror effects to dazzle them. In fact, there are very few sound effects or lighting changes. The show occurs in real time, and there isn't an intermission. This simplicity, however, does not take away from the show's ability to captivate its audience. On the contrary, these factors make one feel like they are new neighbors spying on the life of this intricate family.
Director Marianne Kubik originally planned to have the show performed in the round, with audience members on all sides of the stage. But in production and design meetings a decision was made to close off two sides of the Helms Theatre in order to create an actual house for the actors to perform in.
"Because it's a realistic play, and doors and windows are incredibly significant, we felt that we needed at least one wall that we could have a set on, that could go vertically from the floor ... so we could have doors and windows," Kubik explained. This gives audience members the rare opportunity to walk through the set as they find their seats, immediately drawing them into the show's parallel world.
Another way in which "So Careless" stands apart from other University productions is its extremely small cast and the absence of graduate students. The four person cast of undergraduates includes first-year Jacquie Walters, second-year Caroline Ryon, and third-years Julia Debo and Alyssa Lott. Many of these girls commented on how much they enjoy the intimacy of such a small cast and how neat it was to work directly with playwright Grissom. Debo, who plays Hester, said, "it was good to have [Grissom] around so that we could ask him questions about our character. It was intimidating at first, but now you feel like you kind of have a sort of freedom to invent your own person."
Grissom, Charlottesville's resident playwright, has been writing plays for nearly three decades. He wrote "So Careless" over the course of a summer in the '90s and has been refining it ever since. The inspiration for Grissom's play is a fictional woman named Hester, who has not left her house since she experienced a breakdown a year ago. Using this character as a jump board, the rest of the play's plot fell into place. It was first produced as a "lab show" at the University in the mid-90s, with memorized dialogue and minimal sets. From there, it was performed in the late '90s in New York in a "semi-off-Broadway show." This will be the first time the show has come to the University as a full-scale production.
The show is witty, moving and strikingly original and is full of firsts for the University. One cannot help but analyze, question and relate to each character as she experiences a life-changing afternoon.
"So Careless" will be performed at 8 p.m. March 20-22 and March 25-29 in the Helms Theatre. Tickets are $14 for adults and $8 for students. Students may also obtain free admission by usingArts Dollars. 3
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