Our world is getting bigger every day. If nothing else, recent events both domestic and abroad have proven that the unique, modern cocktail of violence, awareness and lack of context can easily come together to create a climate of fear and blind finger-pointing.
That’s the world in which the characters of the play Far Away find themselves, a recognizable dystopia.
Far Away will run from Nov. 14 to Nov. 22 in Lincoln Performance Hall, with a reduced-price preview night on Nov. 13. General admission is $15 nightly, with the student price discounted to $8.
Far Away, written by Caryl Churchill, was published in 2000. The play follows the character Joan through the first quarter of her life, and is set against the backdrop of a world slowly descending into war. The play is partly a love story, but the overarching themes are violence and fear of encroaching government control.
“It’s actually my favorite play,” said Lacey Mulford, assistant director and dramaturge for Far Away. “[Churchill] is trying to show people through her work what violence can do when it goes unchecked, or how we try to justify it.
“I think it’s going to blow peoples’ minds in a way they weren’t expecting.”
The play is being directed by Devon Allen, the head of acting and resident artist. Allen also teaches an acting intensive, a yearlong sequence that touches on major aspects of theater and performance.
Eva Andrews, a post-bac who majored in liberal arts with an emphasis on performance, plays the lead role of Joan in Far Away and has successfully completed the intensive.
“In the sequence I learned technical aspects of acting, as well as helping me get in touch with my instincts or ideas for how a scene should be,” Andrews said. “I feel like the sequence grounds you and makes you more autonomous.”
Andrews said the sequence also prepared her for working with more intense material with complex, nuanced language.
“Far Away is very poetic. It’s a different kind of language,” Andrews said.
Andrews said this is a rare role for her. Often cast as lighthearted characters, Andrews said she is adjusting to playing Joan.
“I think Joan is an amazing character and I feel like I’m learning a lot,” Andrews said. “It’s been difficult finding her because she’s very confident and she has assertiveness. It’s inspiring me to be more confident and assertive. If I can nail that about Joan, I’ll be proud of that.”
Thomas Bucciero, a junior majoring in theater arts who will play the role of Todd, is currently enrolled in the acting intensive. Far Away will be his fifth play at PSU.
“It’s challenging because I’m learning these things in the acting sequence, and then relearning them but at a more intense level for the sake of the show,” Bucciero said.
Bucciero said that, even though he says it about each of the plays he has performed in, Far Away is his most challenging play to date. That difficulty has been revealing, though.
“You learn a lot about yourself in general, studying these characters,” Bucciero said.
