2008 Woodie Awards
'Sweeney' successfully ends season
Ian Paterson
Issue date: 5/4/07 Section: Gallery
|
Sophomore Amy Whitehead plays the title character, a middle-aged blind woman living in Ireland with her husband, Frank, played by Overturf.
Whitehead's portrayal of the blind Molly Sweeney is remarkably accurate. Though she keeps her eyes lifeless and unfocused throughout the play, Whitehead, an actress who tends to lean on her eyes as the cornerstone of her performances, still manages to use her incredible ability to relate emotionally to the character to pull off yet another great performance.
Overturf has assumed directorial duties throughout the entire production of "Sweeney;" however, when one of his cast members backed out less than a month before its premier, Overturf was left with no other choice than to give the performance himself.
As always, Overturf wraps the crowd around his finger in every scene. In addition to having moments of comic relief, Overturf delivers one of his most emotional and dramatic performances in his SBU career. His portrayal of Frank Sweeney screams of all the hard work, love and passion he's poured into this production over the last 14 months.
Freshman Zack Rogers rounds out the three-person cast with his portrayal of Mr. Rice, Molly's surgeon. Although "Sweeney" is Rogers' debut performance, he gives no hint that he is new to theater. His stunning representation of Mr. Rice is pensive, soft-spoken, intelligent and tragically real.
The truly unique thing about this play is that it contains not one line of dialogue. It could be assumed that over two hours of monologues and hardly any blocking could make for a rather uneventful evening. However, "Molly Sweeney" is not a play that relies on predictability.
Although the characters never address each other in dialogue, "Sweeney" has an alarming amount of character interaction. It is definitely a character-driven story, and the performance given by each cast member drives this play with a raw energy that makes Molly Sweeney's story as real and personal to the audience as if they were experiencing the same emotions felt by the characters.
"Sweeney" is by far the best production to end this very exciting theater season. Arguably the best drama of the year, "Sweeney" is a poignantly raw depiction of the reality of consequences, life, emotion and contentment.
Overturf should have no reason to believe that his last performance and directorial project was anything less than phenomenal.
For ticket information, contact the box office at 328-1691 or e-mail boxoffice@sbuniv.edu.
Be the first to comment on this story