Skidmore News

Issue date: 3/5/10 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Melissa Cohn Margaret Smith '12 and Nikki Sinclare '13

Nov. 9, 2009 was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Peter Maurer '10, who already had an interest in "the struggle between Communism and Capitalism," felt that such an event should not pass by without some sort of tribute, and so he wrote and directed a play called "Cold Wall," which set out to portray an accurate view of a divided Germany.

The play spans a 30 year period, which is quite ambitious for a 35-minute production. The work offered glimpses into many different aspects of the time, but that is just what the performance was: a glimpse.

The strife of the Cold War and, more specifically, the plight of Berliners under the divided regime, makes for demanding emotional and intellectual subject matter to tackle in such a brief time.

The Cold War is undoubtedly a worthy source of inspiration, but the painfully short viewing time was insufficient to fully convey such weighty subject matter.

The play delt with the pain and confusion of the separation from friends and family, the unwanted knowledge of the atrocities the Germans as a people had allowed to happen and the political conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The nine-person cast consisted of Kelsey Amnett '12, Richard Bastuck '13, Matt Brauch '10, Anne Default '12, Sarah Fowler '12, Stephanie Sherry '13, Nikki Siclare '13, Margaret Smith '12 and Grace Troxell '13. They all portrayed their characters with admirable gusto.

Upon entering the room, the viewer was greeted with a scene of quiet, contorted figures sprawled over the floor. Despite fine performances from the actors, the large number of characters and unrelated scenes made the story difficult to follow.

Considering the show was a workshop as opposed to a main stage event, its technical effects were impressive. The lighting was handled well, adapting appropriately to changes in mood.

The music was similarly well integrated. The selected pieces of music corresponded to the respective time periods of each scene, although they could have been more specific to locale. For instance, the music from Berlin at the time had a much different feel from that of Great Britain.

Virtually non-existent is the best way to describe the set. Until the latter half of the show, the only object that could be called a prop was a post with a paper sign that read "East, West." However, when the play entered the post-wall-construction era, an impressive array of boxes came into the picture.

The vivid image of the wall effectively conveyed a feeling of isolation to the audience, bolstered by the fact that they could no longer see half of the stage. Placing the wall horizontally in the middle of the stage seemed intended to mimic the separation of Berlin, but the action had a negative impact on the performance.

The audience could still hear what was happening on the opposite side, but the lack of visual representation left the viewer with an incomplete picture. How can the audience fully understand the "impact dividing a people" if it only gets one side of the story?

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