One thing that inevitably greets Hopkins students when they step onto the Homewood campus in the fall is the announcements for various “O-Shows”. Almost every performance arts group puts on its own version of this tradition, ringing in another artistically ambitious year.
Naturally, Hopkins’ renowned theater troupe, the Barnstormers, participates annually. From September 7 through 9, they presented their O-Show, “The Coming World,” directed by Lien Le and produced by Victoria Schroeter.
In her Director’s Note, Le explained, “I was first drawn to “The Coming World” because I felt a connection to its characters, but I couldn’t understand why. I’ve been spending the rehearsal process with my two actors trying to figure that out.”
“The Coming World”constitutes an astoundingly fitting choice for this year’s “O-Show” for more reasons than Le’s apparent connection to the characters alone. In fact, one of the protagonist’s main struggles is disorientation— both in the sense of finding one’s place in society, and in navigating the muddled waters of morality and individual notions of right and wrong.
As such, the play starts off with a rather idyllic scene: a young couple, happy and in love, spends an evening at the beach. Dora, portrayed by Margo Heston, and Eddy, portrayed by Josh Langfus, appear to be in a content relationship.
Yet latent conflicts are introduced to the audience in the opening scene; there are hints toward Eddy’s gambling and drinking problems, and Dora’s strong disapproval of them. Although the scene ends on a peaceful note, the next time we see Dora and Ed it is clear that said peace did not last long.
From here on in, the majority of the story is told in flashbacks, recounted during meetings on the dock, which remains the only location throughout the whole play. We gather from Dora’s terse conversation with Eddy that she broke up with him after a particularly irresponsible night of drinking at the casino.
Eddy’s life has rapidly deteriorated without Dora’s stabilizing influence. He became involved with the mob and drugs and is now in deep financial trouble. He hopes to solve his financial woes by robbing the Blockbuster that Dora works at. She is, of course, outraged by his idea and leaves him at the dock.
She comes down to the dock again, not to meet Eddy, but rather Eddy’s twin brother Ty, who the audience has only heard about so far.
At this point in the play, it was fascinating to see how Josh Langfus managed to switch roles in a manner so effective that after a few minutes, the audience had forgotten that it was still seeing the same actor on stage. In general, one of the great strengths of this performance lay in both of the actors’ abilities to sidestep the potential pitfalls that come with a two-person show.
Langfus and Heston dispersed any looming monotony through their diversified portrayal of the characters. In reenacting dialogues and encounters with other people, they created the illusion of a more elaborate cast.
Even Heston, who only portrays Dora throughout the show, changes her whole demeanor so profoundly when she interacts with Ty that we almost feel like she has a twin as well.
Dora’s and Ty’s conversation conveys that Eddy did end up robbing the Blockbuster, injured Dora in the process, and later committed suicide on the very beach where all the scenes take place. The guilt and regret that both Ty and Dora feel are for a while glossed over with flirtations between the two.
The “new” Dora flatters openly and is obviously smitten with this man, who, so much more than Eddy, respects her yearning for stability and safety. Ty, however, cannot return her advances. Where his brother was aggressive and forward, he is shy, modest and introverted- a discrepancy that Langfus makes palpable through modified body language and speech.
Throughout the play, the overall suspense intensifies along as the plot becomes increasingly more dramatic. Prolonged silences become more and more momentous, cumulating in the several silent minutes that follow Ty’s rejection of Dora. She dives into the dark ocean, literally and symbolically, thereby drastically changing the mood from flirtatious to sinister within seconds.
This scene can again be seen as an allegory for the disorientation and the feelings of being lost that these characters struggle with.
The play closes with another encounter between Dora and Ty several weeks later.
Interestingly, they both display certain traits or habits that Eddy used to possess: Dora temporarily gets addicted to Vicodin and is now dating Eddy’s casino buddy whom she used to despise. Simultaneously, Ty is thinking about quitting his job, thus giving up on his secure lifestyle.
One last time, we are confronted with the question of why the characters make these decisions and who or what guides them. Do they inadvertently become more like Eddy to relieve some of the guilt that they both feel about his suicide? Did tragic events skew their initial ideas of how their life should be? The audience can only guess how the characters will develop beyond this point and is left to decide as to whether their new lifestyles will turn out to be a temporary switch or a permanent derailment for them.
Considering all of this, I believe that almost everybody feels a certain connection to these characters and we might not instantly know where it originates, but I believe the lingering theme of confusion and (dis)orientation in the play speaks to us. We, like Eddy, Dora, and Ty, are constantly looking for road signs pointing us in the right direction that will prepare us for the coming world.
