Strong acting drives 'The Complaint'

Being the daughter of a police officer, the idea of reviewing "The Complaint," a play based on the concepts of racial profiling and police brutality, wasn't exactly tantalizing. I was sure it was going to be full of police-bashing, name-calling dialogue and peppered with doughnut jokes.\nI was wrong.\nThe Bloomington Playwrights Project is located in a small two-section building at 312 S. Washington St. The theater itself, the Timothy J. Wiles stage, was quite small, holding only 48 seats. When I arrived, about 10 people were there. The audience was very diverse and included acting students sharing theater anecdotes, families enjoying a Friday evening show and the play's director, Randy Noojin. By the time the show had started, about 30 people filled the theater. For this show, the theater was divided into three main "mini-sets" -- a cozy living room, a police department office and a surveillance post.\nThe show opened with Sgt. Archer (Frank S. Buczolich) portraying a stereotypical police sergeant -- loud, obnoxious and sneaking several drinks from a silver flask on the sly. Add in Merrill (Emily Goodson), a young, blonde, eager police officer, the story suddenly became more interesting. \nGoodson had to play three different characters and, as if that wasn't hard enough, she did this by speaking in two different accents -- one a sugary sweet southern twang and the second a tough, street smart Coney Islander dialect. Goodson not only managed to play three different characters, each with their own demeanor, but she pulled it off with class, style and skill. She had no problem changing from one character into another with a simple switch of scenery.\nThe scenes between Goodson and Buczolich were filled with excessive profanity -- to the point where it was almost painful -- and risqué sexual undertones only added fuel to the fire. But the pair had a chemistry that made the characters they played more lifelike and credible. The use of the word "darkie" was unnecessary, but spoken many times in conversations between the two. The racist slang evoked winces from several audience members, myself included.\nIn the show, Sgt. Archer is accused of using excessive force, particularly with an instrument that has been recently added to many police forces -- the tazer gun. The function of the tazer gun is to subdue an offender by shocking him or her with an electrical charge. Noojin's use of this particular weapon seems to be intentional, especially with the newspaper articles telling of police brutality using tazers lining the walls outside the theater.\nAndy Alphonse, who plays Gary Williams, is believable as a man who was wronged by Archer; however, his attempts at a British accent were not always successful and at times comical. His scenes with Goodson were almost completely comprised of sexual innuendos, double entendres and an erotic quality that was not always appropriate for the younger members of the audience.\nInvestigating Williams' complaint against Archer is Internal Affairs agent Cliff Bellamy. Mike Engberg, who plays Bellamy, perfectly executed the clipped, by-the-book persona, yet seemed to be slightly over-the-top with his sarcasm and tone. Engberg's overemphasis of Bellamy's attitude was difficult to bear at times, only adding to the stereotype that government officials are overbearing and conceited.\nWith all the serious issues being presented, the show would have been too intense without the much-needed comic relief provided by Williams' best friend Bud Benjamin, played by Patrick D. Murphree. Murphree's facial expressions and tonal inflections were perfectly timed and added a bright spot to the dark comedy.\nOverall, the play was more enjoyable than I had expected. The play was not only thought-provoking, insightful and entertaining, but also a maze of plot twists and turns, shocking revelations and a surprise ending that caught even the most discerning completely unaware.\n-- Contact staff writer Jennifer Griffin at jdgriffi@indiana.edu.