The show is set more than five centuries from now, and Director Dennis Hollenbeck and his designers enjoy every minute of it. Hollenbeck and Student Set Designer Sarah Valecko created an impressive set of grays and blacks with a lot of bland symmetry, walls and doors that slide in and out to reveal new areas as needed, the main section of the stage tilted up away from the audience. Monitors are imbedded in the wall. Dave Allen and Mark Valecko’s heavy use of blue lighting on the grays leaves it all feeling stark, cold, sterile, and futuristic. And then there’s the great costumes by Kimmie Snyder that complement the set so well and distinguish the different sects of society. All topped off with the hairdos. Striking blue hair, an outrageous blond big hair for Mustapha Mond (the controller of Western Europe), and the super-hair-sprayed do of the city’s Director that looks like he’s running through a wind tunnel. In a world that encourages you to spend your money on yourself, it’s clear that hair stylists are doing well.

The story centers on Bernard Marx, a member of the alpha-plus caste who are bred for the careers needing the most intelligence. But Bernard doesn’t exactly fit the status quo. He looks different, is uncomfortable with the societal norms, doesn’t fit in with the others, and has too strong of an emotional attachment to one girl in a world where you’re supposed to casually go from one mate to another. Bernard’s uniqueness has not gone unnoticed. Like most of the others in the alpha caste, the Director doesn’t like him, and is thinking of sending him to some out-of-the-way outpost like Iceland so that he doesn’t upset the social order. But when Bernard goes to a reservation in the southwestern United States, a place where “savages” live like they did centuries ago, breeding among themselves like animals rather than being created in a lab to fill specific caste roles in society, a chance meeting gives Bernard an opportunity to become popular and save him from a desolate fate in Iceland.

Bernard is played by the talented Remy Remigio who captures both the awkward, nerdy personality and the selfish nature that rears its head when Bernard sees a chance to finally be accepted, and even revered, by his peers. Monica Wall is the “pneumatic” Lenina Crowne, a young woman who is considered unusual only in that she is more attractive than most, her dialogue filled largely with the lines she has been programmed to say since birth with complete ease of conscience. But when the savage enters her life, her internal confusion is well depicted by Monica. Christian Beyer is the tenderhearted and tender-faced savage John, an idealistic innocent who is thrilled at the beautiful utopia he expects to see – as beautiful, he imagines, as Lenina with whom he falls immediately in love. But what he finds is not at all like the contraband stories of Shakespeare from which he learned to read.

The cast at Madison includes a number of other impressive performances. Trevor Bowles is the self-assured, quick-to-anger Director who nicely portrays his collapse when confronted with the unthinkable. Robyn Manion exudes both unrivaled power and stately beauty as the calm, pragmatic, intelligent, and scientifically curious Mustapha Mond. Ariana Thomas is the exact opposite as John’s mother Linda, an old and ragged woman clinging to her early programming, genuinely embarrassed by what has become of herself on the reservation, confused till the end, her beta-bred mind unable to cope with her reality. Mark Lozano is Bernard’s only true friend, the easygoing Helmholtz who has a dangerous artistic passion. Laura Gregorich is a prime example of a successfully programmed citizen as Lenina’s best friend Fanny.

Performs March 28-30, 2007

Rob Hopper
National Youth Theatre

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