Powerful play falters in production

If "Noises Off" was the IU Theatre & Drama Department's jovial answer to the uneasy feelings shared by many Americans in this time of crisis, their latest production, "God's Country," is a more sober answer to the Sept. 11 attacks. \n"God's Country" is a docu-drama exploring the events that led to the assassination by a white supremacist of left-wing radio personality Alan Berg, powerfully played by graduate student José Antonio Garcia.\nThe program says the play takes place between 1983 and 1990 in various locations around the northwest part of the country.\nThe play's structure has no linear timeline and the events portrayed occur out of order, making the play hard to follow. Sometimes the events are acted out, and other times they are related through trial testimony and more abstract means.\nBut playwright Steven Dietz never writes a superfluous scene. Every episode has its place, explaining an event or a state of mind.\nTo mount such a complex and powerful production requires strong direction. Director Rick Fonté, a graduate student, does his best to tie the show together, floundering occasionally. There are times when the show is mesmerizing. At the end of the first act, the players engage in an Aryan Nation induction ritual. Watching a Klansman, a racist preacher and an Aryan minister all shout their diatribes as new members are 'knighted' into the order is eerie and effective.\nOther scenes fall incredibly flat. Many involve the leader of the supremacy group, Robert Matthews, played by sophomore Matthew Ryan Zaradich.\nIt becomes obvious that Fonté and Zaradich try to make the character seem like an everyday person to infer "these people are everywhere." Sadly Matthews' white supremacy seems more like a hobby than a way of life, never moving the audience to feel anything. No sympathy and no hatred, just apathy.\nBut Matthews is the character with the least amount of time onstage. The rest of the time, the ensemble tells the story, and many of the actors inspire emotion. Seniors Jeff Radue, Stuart Ritter and Peter Gerharz, sophomore Christina Marie Pumariega, freshman Mike Mauloff and graduate student Chris Nelson all handle their roles as lawyers, Aryans, skinheads, and murderers in a straightforward manner, with chilling effects. They do not appear to be IU students playing evil ignorant cowards. Instead they become those cowards.\nOther actors seem to mock the characters they portray. It seems inappropriate in a show such as "God's Country." While there are lighter moments in the production, they are there for a reason; but sometimes a serious moment would cause chuckles from the audience at inappropriate times, because a cast member was mocking the character instead of playing it straight.\nOther elements of the production take the audience out of the show, and plop them right back into reality. One is the T300 Theater itself.\nWhile scenic designer Mark Frederic Smith, a graduate student, did what he could with the space he was given, creating a versatile and atmospheric set, there are times when the show feels like it's going to explode into the theater's cramped quarters. \nThe seating consists of a thrust arrangement where actors are able to walk amongst the audience and stare them down. While potentially dramatically effective, there is a lighting problem involved. Whenever an actor ventures into the thrust area, lighting designer Laura Dowling, a graduate student, is forced to bring the houselights up, reminding the audience they are at the theater and thereby taking away from the realism. The flat white lighting in the scenes provides no atmosphere and lessens the effectiveness of the show. Instead, a more shadowy scheme would have been appropriate.\nSadly, "God's Country" left me dwelling more on what it could have been, rather than what it was. The show carries an important lesson on why fanatics do the things they do. The people represented in the play committed atrocious acts because they were filled with religious fervor, not unlike the men who flew airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Unfortunately, fervor is exactly what this production was missing.