Jesse Medina
The Paw Print
ALAMOSA, CO- The Sextet plays opened on October 26 at the Xperimental theatre on campus. There are six plays altogether that toy with the concepts of life, death, sexuality, incest, religion, murder, and the like.
The Sextet plays are by Don Nigro, directed by Jessica Ray and Eleanor Smith. It is a dark set of plays that show some semi-nudity but well within the boundaries of the story, nothing is over the top. Well phrased dialogue and symbolism is prevalent throughout the set of plays.
The plays began with a well-dressed man greeting the audience. He gives the audience a brief description of what they can expect. The overall feeling of the plays is of a macabre, dark nature that forces the audience to look into the recesses of the human experience.
The first play begins with the narrator illustrating a story about a woman he became obsessed with. The first play goes into depth about the nature of obsession. The obsession with the man over the woman and the obsession of the woman with rituals are showcased between the two. The differences in obsession can be noted throughout the first play as the man slowly loses control of his obsession and the woman continues to maintain hers. The clashing of the two character’s obsessions leads to a surprising ending for the audience.
The second story told was called “Barefoot in Night Gown by Candlelight.” There are three girls at a boarding school that create a small society amongst the three of them in which they play a game similar to truth or dare. There is a master, slave, and witness and the three girls reverse roles throughout the play. They continuously play the game, sometimes with sexual connotations, sometimes malevolent and violent. The end of the second play illustrates just how far peer pressure can go.
The third play finds a mother with her two children, a boy and girl discussing the Bible. The family is an obvious caricature of an extremely conservative family. The father is a Christian censor and is continuously gone on trips to rid the world of obscene literature. The mother is continually reading excerpts from the Bible to the children. The excerpts are from the Old Testament and deal with subjects of violence and sexual deviance. The family in the meantime is engage in the acts in question illustrating their hypocrisy.
The next play deals with the concepts of social images and portrayal. Two sisters become the object of an outcast boy’s fancy. The boy is a sin eater and is charged to devour the sins of the deceased to cleanse their spirit for heaven. The boy then is asked to remove the younger sister’s sin after her untimely demise. This causes him great duress and forces him to look deeper into his feelings towards her and his occupation.
The fifth play showcases paranoia and a critical look into the actual reality of life. The final play finds a mother and daughter alone in a house. The daughter yearns to leave and begin her life but is forced to care for her controlling bitter mother. The daughter meets a boy in the fields surrounding the house causing instant conflict with the mother. The mother fears that her daughter will fall into her situation and feels helpless. Overall, the fear of loss and repeated mistakes causes the mother and daughter anguish in the end.
The plays were fantastic and highly recommended for anyone who appreciates the darker side of life. The play will be showing at 8 p.m. through October 30.
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