Show tackles new, difficult horizons

Author: Justine Katzenbach


Interview with the playwright, Rinde Eckert, is produced by Radio Arts Middlebury. For more radio news, tune in every Wednesday at 4:30 PM on 91.1 FM WRMC.

Those unable to attend Wright Memorial Theatre on Oct. 8 for Rinde Eckert's production of "Horizon" missed out on a truly avant-garde theatrical moment. Challenging all normal dramatic conventions - as well as all other conventions, too - this performance piece created, written and composed by Eckert left audience members stunned. While astonishing both positively and negatively, there is still no doubt in the matter - "Horizon" is far from a theatrically mundane experience.

The piece chronicles the day in the life of Reverend Reinhart Poole (Eckert), a theologian grappling with his own faith. We follow Reinhart as he prepares for his last lecture at the seminary where he has been fired from after 25 years of teaching his course on "ethics." The groundbreaking and provocative nature of his work has been questioned by the seminary's administration, and without further explanation he is asked to leave.

Reinhart's day is filled with a bizarre mÈlange of happenings, 24 hours which seem suspended from any apparent normalcy or reality. He floats from conversations with his wife Patricia, to images of himself teaching. At some moments he remembers conversations with his father and mother or embarks in heated debate with the ghost of his brother. He also rereads the play that he has been writing, which tells the story of two masons who are constructing the foundations of a church only to then destroy it.

Based loosely on the life of Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), an important American theologian whose revolutionary ideas, like Reinhart Poole's, were not always willfully accepted. This is not to say that "Horizon" is a biographical representation of Niebuhr's life, but it is perhaps vital to recognize this fact in order to understand the performance's origins.

"Horizon" plays with the clash of significance and meaninglessness. The difficult nature of the text constantly alludes to Biblical, philosophical and literary references that were surely far above the heads of many audience members. But as Eckert explained during his behind-the-scene lunch on Monday before the show, the piece is not necessarily asking audience members to decipher or decode its complexness - it just wants you "to try to take it in."

The production was virtually flawless in its arrangement. The direction of David Schweizer made the inaccessibility of "Horizon" - its highly academic nature and its lack of linearity - relatively accessible. This, of course, was helped by the dynamism of Eckert and his two accompanying performers, Howard Swain and Middlebury College alumnus David Barlow '95. Swain and Barlow's energy brought a necessary comical element to the weighty piece, as they adopted various accents to represent their multiple characters, sang melodiously or even performed acrobatic-like feats. The actors' highly-stylized performances added to the surrealist nature of "Horizon" as well as enhanced the aesthetically pleasing nature of the show.

Set designer Alexander V. Nichols showed how integral the role of a set is in revealing the power of a production. Seven chalkboards placed vertically stood at the back of Wright Theatre, with the word "horizon" written boldly across them. Throughout the show, Reinhart wrote various words upon the boards to represent elements of his teachings such as "allegory," "belief" and finally, "doubt." Cinderblocks are scattered on the floor, which the masons from the play within the play use to construct their imaginary church. The three tables in the back are equipped with removable wood panels, which added to the reconstruction constantly occurring on stage.

The simple nature of the stage seems profoundly more dynamic through the actors' remarkable use of props. From pirouetting on cinderblocks to standing on tables, Schweizer affectively directed his cast into using the vertical landscape of the set, pushing audience members to look beyond into the horizon.

Music was also integral to the show, though at times to an extent which felt a bit forced. The sound design of Gregory T. Kuhn was highly important in creating a sort of dreamlike state. The reoccurring bouts of the actors breaking into song, from barber shop to musical comedy, became a bit enervating as the show was reaching its end. At times, these musical renditions felt like too much effort - unnecessary in relations to the intrinsic musicality of the story telling provided in the piece.

"Horizon" relies upon the notion of allegory. If the entire play is a parable, then how much of it is true and how much of it is just nonsensical? The greatness of Eckert's show lies in the way that he toyed with the idea of connectivity - he let the audience decide what would be symbolic and what would just merely be.