Drama takes the issues head on

Last weekend, the Boston College theatre department presented three showings of Jane Martin's, Keely and Du. The play depicts the kidnapping and imprisonment of rape victim Keely (Jackie Arko, A&S '05) by an extremist Christian group thwarting her attempt to get an abortion. The play also follows the relationship that develops between the young woman and Du (Meghan Hart, A&S '08), the nurse appointed to care for her.

The sparse set, which was composed only of a bed, a couple of chairs, a small refrigerator, and some piping bent to imply a ceiling, was an appropriate manifestation of the dismal circumstances.

Arko, a consistently natural and conversational actress, gave Keely an affecting sense of humanity. Her delivery was both honest and unapologetic, bringing an intense mixture of vulnerability and anger to the character. The intimate setting of the Bonn Studio was an ideal venue, illuminating her visible development throughout the play as well as inviting the audience more closely into the situation.

Pastor Walter (Foster Matt Johns, A&S '05), the leader of the kidnapping group, was portrayed more two-dimensionally, though this may have been an intentional commentary on the black-and-white attitude of his extremist perspective. Though the pastor lacked emotional development, the writing was at fault, and Johns created a fitting archetype for his character.

Hart initially played Du as a typical subservient, flat member of a radical group, but successfully evolved the character into flesh and blood, playing a well-intentioned innocence off Arko's careful sarcasm.

The direction was unobtrusive but evidently well received, as were the scene changes - simple fades in and out to represent the passage of time.

Though the writing seemed to revel in its own controversial nature at times, it didn't fail to illustrate the raw emotion present on both sides of the abortion debate.

The relentless intensity that resulted was broken infrequently, though effectively, by brief spots of humor, centering on the inevitable bond that arose between the two women.

At one point, as Du shares stories of her past with Keely, she admits that she has "smoked the marijuana." As drug references made by elderly ladies will often do, the comment elicited a good and welcome laugh from the audience, though Hart's naive delivery saved the scene from being relegated to the ranks of a cheap joke.

Unfortunately, much of the development and identity that was so carefully crafted by the actors was allowed to dissolve toward the end of the play, once again at fault of the writing. In the last half hour, Keely's ex-husband/attacker, played effectively enough by Michael Cherkezian, A&S '06, was brought out seemingly as an accelerant toward the end.

This plot twist gave the curtain call an unfinished feel, and, though no one would ask that the play attempt to establish any working resolutions to the age-old abortion issue, there was ample potential for a more conclusive end.

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