Never the Sinner - Production Critique
Uploaded by Brown6857 on Mar 11, 2001
This paper is a critique of a production of Never the Sinner, a murder drama written by John Logan, which was performed and produced by the Department of Theatre and Dance at E.S. Strother Theatre located on the campus of Ball State University. Director Judy E. Yordon captures the viciousness and brutality of the murder of an innocent, young boy in this dramatic account of a homicide at the hands of two young men who are intertwined in a dark, sexual relationship. During the murder and trial of “the crime of the century” the director and cast portray to the audience the sheer violence and torment these two men are willing to affect on another human being for the utter enjoyment of killing another person. This is done by exposing the events of the murder to the audience and then allowing the audience to conclude the motive of the murder, by means of interpretation using the final scene as the keynote in the performance. I found the last scene of the performance to be rather disturbing to say the least.
The performers in the production were very suitable for the roles in which they were cast. Dustin Bennett (Nathan Leopold) and Andrew Burt (Richard Loeb) were excellent in their performance and portrayed their characters well. Both ideally fit the roles in which they were cast. As for the other five members of the cast they to were well suited in their roles and showed much talent in their ability to portray different characters in the same performance. Especially that of Natalie Ellis who portrayed both a girlfriend and a doctor in the play and who easily adapted to her changing roles within the scene.
The actors knew their lines of dialogue and exactly what they were talking about, which made it easy for the audience to follow along. The actors could clearly be heard and had clear enunciation, expect during the scene of the trial, in which, the police officer was on the stand. This was in part due to the fact that he was seated in an area beside the audience and it was hard to make out what he was saying because the audience was blocking him from my view. The voice the characters used was appropriate, especially during the trial when the attorneys were speaking and when Germaine Rheinhardt was on the stand. The men were harsh, loud...