Full-frontal shocks viewers
Jeremy Hellwig
Issue date: 11/6/08 Section: TruLife
After attending the theatre department's production of "Bug," by Tracy Letts, I still can't think of a situation in a live play that would require full-frontal nudity. I say this, despite the fact that "Bug" features both male and female full-frontal. Interestingly enough, that literally was the only thing I knew about the play before I saw it. Despite the name of the play, I didn't even know whether the plot had anything to do with bugs, assuming instead that the title was some sort of metaphor. Turns out, the play was sort of about bugs. Because I did not know anything going into the play other than that there would be nudity, I was hoping that the nudity wouldn't just be random. I was disappointed in that regard. Like much of the dialogue, the nudity was unnecessary and pointless.
Time out for an aside - there is a strange phenomenon that occasionally occurs in theatre, especially at the University. This phenomenon is the coexistence of a very bad script and very good performances by the actors in the same show. This happened with "Bug."
The play took place in the Black Box Theater in Ophelia Parrish and was directed by senior theatre major Clint Worthington. As someone with a fleeting knowledge of the process involved in putting on a play, I always have the utmost respect for student directors. As far as I could tell, Worthington did a good job. The actors all portrayed very deep and interesting characters.
The entire story takes place in a motel outside of Oklahoma City. The room belongs to Agnes, a middle-aged woman whose abusive convict ex-husband just got out of jail and started stalking her. Her friend/possible lesbian hook-up partner/cocaine dealer introduces her to a weird guy named Peter who ends up living with her. She and Peter start seeing bugs, getting bit by them and freaking out in general. The first act ends with a bunch of crap about how Peter was a military test subject.
Senior Emily Champlin played Agnes. The first couple of scenes are mostly about Agnes' paranoia, and Champlin did a good job of portraying this fear. As a matter of fact, her overall performance was really good, and I ended up being proven wrong after I assumed her fake accent would get annoying by the end of the play. In the second act, even when the dialogue got to be really drawn out and annoying, I still was touched by Champlin's delivery.
Time out for an aside - there is a strange phenomenon that occasionally occurs in theatre, especially at the University. This phenomenon is the coexistence of a very bad script and very good performances by the actors in the same show. This happened with "Bug."
The play took place in the Black Box Theater in Ophelia Parrish and was directed by senior theatre major Clint Worthington. As someone with a fleeting knowledge of the process involved in putting on a play, I always have the utmost respect for student directors. As far as I could tell, Worthington did a good job. The actors all portrayed very deep and interesting characters.
The entire story takes place in a motel outside of Oklahoma City. The room belongs to Agnes, a middle-aged woman whose abusive convict ex-husband just got out of jail and started stalking her. Her friend/possible lesbian hook-up partner/cocaine dealer introduces her to a weird guy named Peter who ends up living with her. She and Peter start seeing bugs, getting bit by them and freaking out in general. The first act ends with a bunch of crap about how Peter was a military test subject.
Senior Emily Champlin played Agnes. The first couple of scenes are mostly about Agnes' paranoia, and Champlin did a good job of portraying this fear. As a matter of fact, her overall performance was really good, and I ended up being proven wrong after I assumed her fake accent would get annoying by the end of the play. In the second act, even when the dialogue got to be really drawn out and annoying, I still was touched by Champlin's delivery.
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