A performance to remember

"Sunflower and Blue," the newest play to open at the John Waldron Arts Center, exceeded all expectations. The best word to describe the performance as a whole would be: Engaging. There wasn't a point in the play where the audience drifted away from the story, despite the play's highly complex plot.\nThe play told the story of a young painter named Alex Templeton (Adam Fisch) hired by Hieronymus Bosch (Ryan Gass) to reproduce a Vincent Van Gogh painting. During Alex's struggle to recreate a masterpiece, he receives unwanted encouragement from his girlfriend Lilya (Kate Emswiller) and constant criticism from his grandmother Alice Templeton (Joss Marsh).\nAlthough the set was nothing more than a platform and a small couch, the originality of the script and the caliber of the acting made the performance a night to remember. In between the characters' dialogue, actors would quote letters written by Van Gogh himself in relation to how Alex's character was developing.\nEach cast member gave a strong performance. Emswiller, a senior from Indianapolis studying psychology and criminal justice, initially appeared to give a weak performance, only to be rudely cut off by her fellow cast member Gass. The two humorously bickered for a few minutes out of character to let the audience know that the play wasn't meant to be melodramatic. Afterwards, Emswiller's performance grew by leaps and bounds.\nIt was stunning to see the amount of character Emswiller created from Fisch's script. Her frustration and concern for Alex's work seemed to serve as the lifeline for the relationship between the two characters.\nGass, a senior from Mitchell, Ind., studying communication and culture, played three parts in the show. As the narrator, he smoothly transitioned the characters' dialogue. As the alias Hieronymus Bosch, he cleverly persuaded Alex to create the false painting with well-delivered sarcasm and sinister movements. As Donnie Macaluso, his ever-increasing fear of guerrillas coming to hold him to his gambling debts made him all the more desperate for Alex's painting to be done in time. He portrayed all three characters to such an extent that an unknowing person would have thought him three different actors.\nMarsh, an English professor at IU, played the part of a woman twice her age with amazing believability. Her character Alice was in a constant state of concealed depression. Both her arthritis and age were factors that kept the old woman cooped up in her New York apartment every day. Her only human interaction was with her grandson/tenant Alex, who didn't express much appreciation to her presence. Her depression grew with the show, escalating to its peak with the climax of the play.\nFisch, the playwright/producer and a second-year medical student at IU, played Alex. His portrayal of the frustrated young artist was the driving force of the play. Whether it was arguing with his grandmother about her medication, apologizing to his girlfriend about one of their many artistic differences or doing his best to avoid the snake-like Hieronymus Bosch, Alex took the audience on an emotional journey of self discovery.\n"Sunflower and Blue" only had two performances at the Waldron. The script itself had a traditional tone with dialogue that gave it a more modern feel. In a sense, it was "Death of a Salesman" for the 21st century. The end of the play brought the audience to its feet in a matter of seconds, proving "Sunflower and Blue" was truly a performance to remember.