{"id":10321,"date":"2014-02-20T11:56:20","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T19:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=10321"},"modified":"2014-02-20T12:10:11","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T20:10:11","slug":"dazzling-potent-play-realistically-probes-school-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/dazzling-potent-play-realistically-probes-school-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Dazzling, potent play realistically probes school tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0Woody’s [rating:5]<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

In \u201cGidion\u2019s Knot,\u201d Corryn (Jamie J. Jones, right) confronts Heather (Stacy Ross) about a note passed to her son in class. Photo by David Allen.<\/p><\/div>\n

Uh, oh!<\/p>\n

From the first cagey moments of \u201cGidion\u2019s Knot,\u201d I knew the play would be grueling to process.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t, however, expect my mouth to drop open, my heart to hurt.<\/p>\n

They did anyway.<\/p>\n

My pledge: Because the two-woman play is a disturbing cat-and-mouse game and theatrical Rorschach test, viewers will find it virtually impossible to leave the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley unaffected.<\/p>\n

Personal baggage will, of course, determine exactly how and what is experienced.<\/p>\n

The tension-filled drama starts with an abrasive, in-your-face single mother \u2014 a walking open wound \u2014 demanding a constrained teacher tell her why she suspended the parent\u2019s troubled son from his fifth-grade class.<\/p>\n

The discussion that follows is often awkward.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also a fascinating examination of personal responsibility and blame, freedom of expression, the failure of our school systems, bullying and embryonic sexuality.<\/p>\n

\u201cGidion\u2019s Knot\u201d is provocative, powerful and guaranteed to force theatergoers to hold their breath for what seems its entire 80 minutes.<\/p>\n

The impact of the gut-wrenching, twist-and-turn tragedy comes when the angry, sarcastic mother, herself a professor used to academic probing, keeps pricking and questioning until she learns the truth.<\/p>\n

At least her<\/em> truth.<\/p>\n

A working clock on a classroom wall helps maintain the sense of real time.<\/p>\n

And the actors\u2019 breathtaking depiction of passion, thoughtfulness and mood swings help keep the action authentic.<\/p>\n

Playwright Johnna Adams demands playgoers think for themselves, so she supplies no pinpoint answers to the questions she poses: Are parents or schoolteachers ultimately responsible for pupils\u2019 well-being? Is Gidion a bullying monster or sensitive, poetic victim? Is classmate Jake the bully or an object of affection?<\/p>\n

Neither fifth grader appears on stage.<\/p>\n

Nor does Seneca, an 11-year-old friend and note-passer described as having a stuffed bra, nose ring, false eyelashes and dyed platinum hair.<\/p>\n

Tossed into the mix are references to censorship, freedom of expression, American society\u2019s litigiousness, and our growing national fear of what\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n

Sadly, \u201cGidion\u2019s Knot\u201d echoes all too many real-life headlines of recent years about individual tragedies caused by taunting, either in person or through social networking.<\/p>\n

And, although it doesn\u2019t reference those situations, it can\u2019t block memories of schoolyard massacres.<\/p>\n

Tension is director Jon Tracy\u2019s fort\u00e9, copious enough to make me \u2014 and most other seat-holders \u2014 uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Intensity prevails.<\/p>\n

Unrelentingly, in fact, all the way to the play\u2019s final moments \u2014 except for a few snarky quips that let everyone find a smidgeon of relief through nervous laughter.<\/p>\n

Part of the unease, by the way, stems from the two characters (and audience) waiting for someone to arrive.<\/p>\n

As \u201cGidion\u2019s Knot\u201d unravels its multi-leveled conflicts and complexities \u2014 from an exploration of Greek and Roman military history and epic poetry to a tale of revenge against teachers and disembowelment \u2014 it may require a strong stomach.<\/p>\n

I could hear erratic gasps in the audience.<\/p>\n

Nina Ball\u2019s set is a deceptively cheery contrast through which she\u2019d dragged me into a 20-desk classroom and its reference maps and academic materials in Anytown, USA.<\/p>\n

The setting\u2019s so effective I could almost see the portraits of gods tacked onto an invisible wall explored by the distraught mom, who reveals she could best relate to a demon-destroying Hindu god, Shiva.<\/p>\n

Destruction just happens to be another underlying theme of \u201cGidion\u2019s Knot.<\/p>\n

So\u2019s the Marquis de Sade.<\/p>\n

Then, of course, there\u2019s the metaphoric Gordian Knot, which \u2014 legend tells us \u2014 Alexander the Great decided to slice rather than untie. The phrase, of course, has become a means of representing having to face an intractable problem.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s absent in this dazzling play is artifice \u2014 despite the presence of polemics and diatribes.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s present is actors whose performances are flawlessly multi-layered, facilitating my feeling their respective pain.<\/p>\n

I flinched as the mother asked disingenuously, \u201cThis doesn\u2019t have to be adversarial, does it?\u201d<\/p>\n

But the sold-out audience was right there as the mother, Corryn Fell (Jamie J. Jones), and teacher, Heather Clark (Stacy Ross), struggled to untangle the web of what really happened.<\/p>\n

Where a playgoer travels emotionally and intellectually will determine whether \u201cGidion\u2019s Knot\u201d is loved or tagged offensive and too harrowing.<\/p>\n

I fall in the first niche, glad I was there despite the work required.<\/p>\n

The opening night crowd also had no doubt: In unison, it gave it a thunderous standing ovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cGidion\u2019s Knot<\/em>\u201d runs at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, through March 9. Night performances, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Tuesdays and Sundays, 7 p.m.; matinees, Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $16-$50. Information: www.auroratheatre.org<\/a>or (510) 843-4822.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0Woody’s [rating:5] Uh, oh! From the first cagey moments of \u201cGidion\u2019s Knot,\u201d I knew the play would be grueling to process. I didn\u2019t, however, expect my mouth to drop open,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"