A courtroom scene from “The AndersonviUe Trial.”
Photo by Cal Jones
drama
VLTs
issue
filled
Trial
marred
only
by
small
mistakes
The Very Little Theater took a big gamble when it decided to
produce “The Andersonville Trial”, and for the most part, the gamble
paid off.
The play takes place in a courtroom in 1865 where Henry Wirz is
being tried for criminal conspiracy. Wirz, an officer in the Con
federate army, was in charge of a prison camp outside of An
dersonville in which 14,000 Union soldiers died because of cruel and
inhumane treatment. Wirz pleads that he was simply following orders,
and to have done otherwise would have placed his own life in jeopardy.
The entire court case slowly dwindles down to a question of whether or
not Wirz should have disobeyed orders.
By the very nature of the play, it is very static. The judge remains
seated most of the time, the witnesses are limited in their amount of
movement, and the court Clerk and other assistants are not motivated
to move very often. Any action and interest in this play must therefore
be created by the dialogue and the actors.
The dialogue is certainly not exceptional. There are some good
sharp comments, but they are few and far between. After a few wit
nesses, the questioning even becomes rather predictable.
Into a play with all of these drawbacks, director Henny Willis has
placed a strong cast that prevents the play from being a two hour
episode of “Day in Court.”
The Judge Advocate and the Defense Counsel carry a large portion
of the play and fortunately they are played by two of the strongest
actors Mark Bruce, as the Judge Advocate, exhibits an amazing
amount of energy as he pressures each witness and works to get his
points across. His quiet moments are also appropriately handled in a
sincere and convincing manner.
His opponent is the Defense Counsel played by Kenneth Payne.
Payne not only looks like the stereotyped lawyer, but he has an out
standing ability to make many of his lines sound so spon
taneous that they seem to be ad libbed.
Two other standouts in the cast are Ed Banker Jr. as the bullish and
frustrated President of the Court, and Don Porter as a simple minded
witness. Both have strong grasps on their characters and consistently
maintain them.
The fine acting level slips twice, at moments when strong acting is
really needed. Kevin Leinbach plays a young soldier who describes the
killing of one of his friends by dogs in the camp. The scene is played so
intently that many of the words are lost between heaves and sighs.
Ron Field, who plays Wirz, is also plagued by this same problem but
to an even greater degree. His final monologue is essentially the
climax of the play. Unfortunately, it is simply overdone. His minor
physical infirmities seem to creep over his whole body causing him to
become a convulsive cripple. Much of what he says is either whispered
too softly or lost in his cries. The only feeling evoked is one of pity (or
frustration because he can’t be understood), which only gets in the
way of the sympathetic feeling that should be generated.
The lights dim in two spotlights towards the end of the play which
seems incongruous with the realistic lighting of the rest of the play.
Aside from this inconsistency, the technical aspects of the play are
quite adequate.
The sparsely decorated set poses a few blocking problems. The
judge’s bench is set far upstage, and anyone who stands in front of it
addressing the bench- has his back to the audience. This position
cannot be taken very often, thus limiting some movement.
The majority of the blocking is smooth and effortless, something
which is especially difficult to achieve in this play. This is certainly a
part of director Willis’ fine work. Also, his pacing of the show is a
credit to him. To have let the pace slow down in an inappropriate
moment would have been deadly to the show, but Willis has the play
trotting along at a fast, steady clip, and the few pauses are even more
effective because of it.
Basically, “The AndersonviUe Trial” receives a pretty good
production by the Very Little Theater. Those who really appreciate
the play and its issues will probably find this production pleasing. It
continues to run each night this week through Saturday.
Glen Bushey
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