Simply put, “The Ghost Sonata” is the best play UNM has produced all school year — SCRAP, UNM Facility, Tricklock or otherwise.
“The Ghost Sonata” (1908) is a later work of August Strindberg, an expressionist, surrealist, dramatist and author with the foresight and influence of these 20th century movements, inspiring the likes of Ingmar Bergman, Tennessee Williams and Franz Kafka.
The setting is a macabre limbo that screams Kafka out of every pore. Complex, family dramas swirl around a young “student” (Drew Morrison) who finds more fanatical, ghoulish suffering than human scandal.
There is love, intrigue and urban activities, but it’s the blanketing dread that takes front stage. The play has human horror on the brain, making the supernatural commonplace and daring you to call it surreal.
Justino Brokaw, who plays the “old man,” rises to the occasion in a demanding and diverse role. He’s given a lot to do, and he does not shy away from the task. He is villain and antihero, monger and victim — and in all of these roles, he performs well.
“The Ghost Sonata” also marks another great performance from Morrison, who already has a lot of fine performances on his résumé.
Nick Salyer is given a single scene to call his own, which he takes with gusto, displaying a rich comic timing.
Not that the play is really supposed to be funny — or cheerful at all for that matter.
The humor that exists comes in awkward peals of giggling that result from coping with nervous responses of uncomfortable truths.
Truths like the character well played by Lauren Albonico. She is an insane, mummy, parrot woman, and she is the dark secret of her family.
The psychotic is an easy path to overacting, but Albonico exhibited control.
The real success of “The Ghost Sonata,” however, is that of Director Van Hollenbeck.
A director can decide the meaning and themes of a piece and, if a director has powerful ideas and vision for a project, that director can redefine its soul and meaning.
Hollenbeck certainly has vision. The production displays a tendency toward experimentation, new ideas and innovation.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Any experimentation — whether it is a success or failure — should always be noted and praised for the courage and spirit of exploration because it encourages further risk and change in others.
And sometimes the experiments shine as they do in “The Ghost Sonata.”
Uncertainty and discomfort in the audience are well cultivated.
Live creepy, avant-garde music and sounds ripple through the space while none of the actors move or speak in a way that allows the audience to stay complacent for too long.
Odd gender bending aside, with a few male roles given to young female actors in big silly mustaches, “The Ghost Sonata” does many things right, and some, ingeniously.
One brilliant scene between actors Sara Rivera and Stephen N. Forrest contains their only lines, but not a single one is wasted. The pacing is expert with lines taking as much time as they need.
Speech is precious.
Hollenbeck layers the action and takes advantage of the limited but effective set.
It’s not hard to imagine what “The Ghost Sonata” could do if it had the luxurious budget of UNM’s faculty-directed extravaganza, “The Cherry Orchard.”
Makeup is fantastic, from Albonico’s blotchy, whitewashed deterioration, to the geometric corrupted black veins dashed across the faces of the brooding phantasms of the play’s climax.
Even Hollenbeck’s ending reeks of creative control and invocation.
More of a “Curtain Fall,” the matinee audience erupted into applause as the actors assembled for what appeared to be their final bows.
I quickly found myself in itching indecision and stopped clapping when I noticed the actors were still in character.
The audience continued to cheer and whistle, failing to realize the play had not released it from the play’s grasp. It offered no exoneration or catharsis. Even though it’s merely a production, you are not reminded of it, even as the smiling actors take credit for their performances.
It works beautifully.
