Wednesday, May 2, 2001
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Wednesday, May 2, 2001 |
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FCHS' Prologue Players present Ibsen's 'Pillars of Society' By MICHAEL
BOYLAN
"What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." Henrik Ibsen wrote plays that dealt with society. His play "The Doll House" dealt with the role of women in society and his play "Pillars of Society" dealt with lies. The Prologue Players of Fayette County High School will present "Pillars of Society" this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Sams Auditorium. The story focuses on Karsten Bernick, a well-respected man in the community who is about to be honored by his constituents. Eventually, we learn that his past is quite sordid. He married for money, abandoning his true love. When his marriage bored him, he had an affair. When his mistress' husband found out about an affair, he laid the blame on his friend and when his friend and true love left for America, Bernick claimed his friend robbed his family's vault. Years later, Bernick has the respect of the community. The women of the town still gossip about his friend and former lover, saying that the child Bernick keeps is their illegitimate love child, when it is really Bernick's child from the affair. His friend and true love return to town and things begin to fall apart for Bernick. He realizes that he has continued to build up his life on lies and that each time the truth came through and shook the foundation he had built a successful life on, he patched it up with more lies. "We wanted to show that Ibsen is relevant in modern society," said director Fred Bobbitt. "The language has been modernized, but the story remains the same. There are people who run everything but we don't know them for all they really are." The play has been translated from the original Norwegian by Michael Zelenack, a professor of theater at NYU Stonybrook. This is only the second production of this particular translation. The first was at Florida State University. "This particular Ibsen play is not performed very often and it most likely will not come back to the area anytime soon," said Bobbitt. "It's a difficult piece but the kids are working very hard and having a lot of fun with it." The cast is rather large with Dustin Amerson as Bernick, Molly Martin as his true love, Lona, Jessica Draper as Betty, his wife, and Matt Fornito and Sandi Sloat as Marta, his children. Other cast members include Lewis Smith, Timothy Hand, Landon Pitts, Colleen Farley, Jason West, Joel Fiegel, Amy Lowe, Melissa Babbie, Lisa Wetherald, Tim Tuel and Marie Joyner. The cast and crew form the Prologue Players, which is Bobbitt's seventh period production class. The crew members are Megan Roache, William "Mac" Hill and David Bush. The idea for the class was to form a production company at the beginning of the semester and perform all aspects of presenting a production. The students learn all aspects of theater and recognize all that goes into putting on a show. "They've responded very well," said Bobbitt. "I set out to challenge them and they have made great strides." Will Bernick redeem his life? Will the community find out that he is a liar? Will the truth set him free? See "Pillars of Society" to find out. The show will be at 7:30 p.m. May 3-5 at Sams Auditorium. Advance tickets are $4 and tickets at the door are $5. Call 770-460-3540.
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