By Robin Goodfellow
“The Saint Plays” by Erik Ehn, directed by Royston Coppenger, airs Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. This play is a two-hour-long trip of images, emotions and passion. Erik Ehn writes in a style that is full of poetry and music along with imagery and an underlying religious theme. This almost hallucinatory way of writing combined with the very daring directing style of Coppenger makes for a moving theater experience.
The show consists of seven short plays about different saints. Erik Ehn has set out to write a play about every saint, but seeing as there are more than 10,000, he has a way to go. The plays include Wholly Joan’s, Joan of Arc; Dashboard, Christopher; Tree of Hope, Keep Firm, Mary, The Annunciation; Una Carrona, Rose of Lima; Locus, John the Baptist; Pain, Eulalia; Freak, George. Every play tells either the story of the saint, or a part of the saint’s life. “The Saint Plays” is a workshop production, which means that very little money is spent on costumes or set design. The actors wear their own clothing and move on a very small stage with no backdrops or set pieces. The floor is a hodgepodge of color from past shows, which is unnerving as one sits waiting for the lights to drop, but it is utterly forgotten once the action begins. The lighting design is an eerie, grotesque mix of pale blues and handheld clip lights.
The acting overall shows great maturity and stays very consistent with the style of direction. In particular during “Tree of Hope,” Melissa Dennis plays a breathtaking Virgin Mary; a surprisingly powerful and different take on the life of the Virgin. It is also impossible to forget the gut wrenching flamenco dance that is performed by Elisa Gouveia. All of the women and men who grace the stage during this performance show depth and an understanding of the emotions that surrounds the action of the plays. There are times when the understanding of the actors doesn’t reach beyond this, but one is left to question if that is even important. This experience is more about feeling the play than understanding it.
Tickets for “The Saint Plays” are available at the Adams Playhouse Box office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets are also available at the West End Theater an hour and a half before the show. They are free for Hofstra students. This is an experience worth having. Leave your expectations at the door and see this play.