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QCC Theater Production Review

November 2017

QCC's Fall Student Theater Production, "Struggling to Connect - Exploring Relationships," was preformed in Hebert Auditorium Suprenant Hall on November 30 - December 3. Read below for an opening night review by QCC Professor of English, Margaret Wong.

"QCC Student Theater has come of age. In the production of Struggling to Connect, there was nothing merely superficially entertaining about what was presented. Rather, the audience experienced the results of thoughtful hard work on the part of a very talented cast, grappling with the full range and depth of what human connecting entails.

The production’s structure was starkly simple. A triad of individuals come on stage, holding hands, physically connected to one another. Then the connection is broken as the center member moves upstage, alone, to tell a story, make a phone call, or deliver a statement. Upon conclusion of the monologue, the lone speaker reconnects to the others, and the triad goes off stage, holding hands again, connected again.

Backgrounded by the disconnected silent witnesses who hang back — to illustrate, emphasize, or shadow — the statements of the monologist emerge exposed and riveting.The raw emotions on display as stories are told of untoward acts, imminent loss, assault, and killing, draw us in, even as they make us aware that we are voyeuristically witnessing something deeply personal and private.

In the final scene, one voice begins to sing Paul Simon’s “The Sound of Silence,” followed by a second, then a third, until the whole cast is on stage singing together, connected in song. The lyrics, which declare the inescapability of aloneness and silence, are countered by the presence of the connected voices, and therefore, the production leaves the audience with the awareness that human connecting is very much possible.

The production celebrated human connection, but it did not shy away from honestly dealing with the emotional damage of lost love or the devastation caused by female battery and institutional racism. If you saw this play, you learned something about yourself and the world, and you came away impressed with the quality of QCC Student Theater."

 

 

QCC's Production of "Struggling to Connect."
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