There is a white floor, a single white wall and a simple woven rug in the center of the stage. The lights dim slowly to complete darkness—and suddenly, from every direction, there are chilling sounds of bombs exploding, people screaming, news reporters, heavy gunfire and chaos all around.
The current DU production of “Two Rooms,” by Lee Blessing, is a thrilling production covering a difficult subject. The minimalistic and dialogue-heavy show only has four characters: Michael Wells (Thomas Lynch, Littleton, Colorado), an educator taken hostage, Lainie Wells (Olivia van den Berg, Orlando, Florida), Michael’s heartbroken wife back home, Walker Harris (Tim Carlin, Philadelphia), an ambitious reporter and Ellen Van Oss (Rosa Wenger, Denver), a ruthless but considerate State Department official.
In the play, Lainie is facing her third year without Michael, who, thanks to government policy and the power struggles between America, Beirut and the rest of the Middle East in the 1980s, has been brutally held hostage. The show only takes place on one set, in two rooms: one Michael’s cell, and the other Lainie’s home, which she has renovated to look like a hostage cell in order to feel closer to Michael.
On Saturday, Nov. 7, two days after their opening night, the actors and production crew put on a great show and later discussed in a talkback what it was like to perform “Two Rooms.”
“I think that it’s heavily relevant today, to what’s going on today, and I think it’s a topic that people don’t really know how to talk about, and that’s really, really hard. It’s a topic that is very difficult to wrap your mind around because it is so distant from us,” van den Berg stated, on doing a show that covers such terrifyingly realistic issues like war and hostage situations.
No matter the distance, however, the cast did their research, and they capture the pain and truth of war beautifully. There are slow, horrifying monologues from each of the actors; sweet, sorrowful dialogues between them and heated, tense shouting matches across the small stage. Every moment is so raw and powerful that the audience cannot help but hold back tears in empathy for Michael and Lainie Wells.
The show, directed by Rick Barbour (a DU theatre professor), is wonderful in portraying the reality of the war. It stuns the audience with its honesty, pushing the barriers of how much a human being can handle. It tells the heavy truth not just from the point of view of the enemy or the victim, but from the reporter who wants to make a difference, the government official who must face the hard facts every day, the hostage himself, his devoted wife at home and the entire world.
The DU Department of Theatre will continue performances of “Two Rooms” in the Byron Theatre at the Newman Center through Nov. 15. Tickets are available at the Newman Center Box Office.
