by Hillary Gorman
Daily Lobo
"Lord of the Flies" is more than just a play - it describes today's society, said Jonathan Dunski, theater director of VSA North Fourth Art Center.
"The fear tactic that Jack uses to create his gang is completely what our nation is doing on a global level to get us to do stuff, to get the little on us, to get ordinary citizens to buy into lies," Dunski said.
"Lord of the Flies," a play put on by high school students, deteriorates proper British boys into savages.
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Staged by PLAY Conservatory, "Lord of the Flies" will run its final weekend at VSA North Fourth Theatre.
Based on the 1954 novel by William Golding, the play tells a story about 11 boys cast away on a desert island during wartime. The group soon divides. The leaders struggle for power, and it leads to unscrupulous behavior.
James Ackermann, who attends Sandia Prep, plays Jack.
Jack, a sinister character, influences a group of boys to commit hateful acts, Ackermann said.
"I like it because of the way the characters develop throughout the play, how they slowly deteriorate from these proper British boys until they are just trying to stay alive," Ackermann said.
Anna Saggese, production manager, said they decided to make a set unlike a beach or a jungle.
"Instead of palm trees and sand, there were about 10 TV sets on stage," she said. "The design turned into a modern wasteland, an urban jungle."
Within the urban jungle, the boys transform from proper schoolboys into primal creatures.
"Making them British schoolboys, who were brought up in very strict rigorous discipline, gives them a greater distance to go to get to savage," Dunski said. "If I had made them modern American children, well, my gosh - they are halfway there."
In five weeks, the actors learned how to speak their lines with a British accent.
"Kids are still at an age where language is easy to pick up, and so they worked hard at it, and we drove them at it. And they took it very seriously as part of their characters," Dunski said. "And with 'Harry Potter' and 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' coming out, they all have an ear for it already because they have seen a lot of the British accent."
Dunski said he's happy with the outcome of the performance and hopes the play will reach parents.
"Look and see what can happen to the children if we don't parent them thoroughly, if we don't provide them culture and structure, if we don't pass on those messages," he said. "If we don't pass on those messages, if we leave them to their devices, if we leave them to their video games and their Internet unattended, the nature of the beast is going to come out."
"Lord of the Flies"
VSA North Fourth Art Center
4904 Fourth St. N.W.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday
2 p.m. Sunday
$11
