Students work 'Madwoman' script

Bloomington North and South High School's combined theatrical production of Jean Giradoux's "The Madwoman of Chaillot" was convincing and brilliant. The final weekend performance of the play was held at the John Waldron Arts Center. The students' presentation of the complex and twisting dialogue kept the audience interested and in awe.\n"The Madwoman of Chaillot" is a comical story about a group of greedy businessmen who plot to rip apart the historic streets of Paris in hopes of the monetary profit if there is oil underneath. The only thing that stands in their way, they say, is the pesky sentimentality of the human race.\nCountess Aurelia, the madwoman of Chaillot, played convincingly by Anna Ardizzone, lives in her own little eclectic world of fantasy and has somehow overlooked the slow corporate takeover of Paris, which is a kill joy to everything in its path. She holds a meeting with her fellow madwomen, all equally strange and bordering on psychotic, in the basement of her house to inform them of the nature of the problem. Over the course of the afternoon, Aurelia saves humanity from capitalist greed by putting the prospectors on trial with the help of Ragpicker. When they are found guilty, she sends them to their doom.\nThough the dialogue was written for more seasoned professionals, these dynamic high school students made it look easy. In particular, William Ayrea must be given applause for his flawless performance of Ragpicker, who has many long and difficult monologues. He often spoke for over five minutes at a time without interruption and never skipped a beat or faltered in his tremendous stage presence.\nWhile the play did have some rough spots that were difficult to believe, most of this was due to the script. Giradoux has created some of the best drama of our time, but this play has some unnecessary plots. It could have done without the subplot of Irma's romance with Pierre, even though Grace Rex was very moving in her performance of Irma's soliloquy.\nThe play itself was very funny. Many of the actors had good comedic timing, hitting their scripted jokes just right. Nile Arena did an especially good job while playing the flamboyant Baron. Ardizzone also had a knack for making good jokes. She gave a believable performance, looking crazed and deranged as the madwoman.\nSome of the credit in Ardizzone's convincing performance must be given to her wonderful make-up and costume. All of the madwomen wore amazing clothing. The make-up and hair on these girls was applied by the makeup crew made up of two women, Danielle and Nicole Bruce. It was a cross between Queen Amidala in Star Wars and Mimi Bobeck in The Drew Carey Show. Ardizzone's hair was in long odd narrow buns wrapped in ribbons perpendicular to her head. She wore a white mask of makeup with gigantic bright red lips, bright red eyeshadow up to her eyebrows which were drawn huge and black to nearly halfway up her forehead. Ardizzone looked frighteningly unattractive and crazy in the play.\nAll of the madwomen wore amazing clothing. The madwomen's costumes, created by Alison Baker, Sebastian Rudolph and Crystal Mueller, were simply outstanding. Ardizzone wore a multi-layered pink dress with shawls and scarves pinned over it with clothespins. The pins stuck out at odd angles and added to the disoriented look of multiple broaches and strands of fake pearls. Her clothing was the touch that made her crazed bag-woman character come to life. The clothing appeared to be from the 19th century, which adds to her eccentricity as the play takes place in the 1940s.\nThe other madwomen were made up and dressed similarly, but the piece de resistance was the dead pet canaries Mademoiselle Gabrielle, played by Katya Hooker, had pinned to her dress.\nOverall, under the direction of Francesca Sobrer, the drama instructor for Bloomington North, these high school students did a very good job with Giradoux's difficult script. The perfromance was on the level of many community and college productions. "The Madwoman of Challiot" was enjoyable because of their young talent and enthusiasm and was well worth seeing.