Forbidden Zones: The Great War, which opened at OSU’s Roy Bowen Theatre on Wednesday, is an example of the expansive lens the resources of a university can lend a history-based work of theatre. Unfortunately, it also feels like a case of collaboration taken to the extent of a point of view getting lost. The work ends up a tonally-dissonant melange of repetition, dry recitation, and obvious shocks that, at its nadir, feels like a highlight reel of 6th-grade book reports.
A devised theatre piece conceived by Lesley Ferris and co-directed by Ferris and Jeanine Thompson with the MFA actors in its 17 person cast; Forbidden Zones attempts to grapple with the complete scope of the war, from Franz Ferdinand’s assassination through the armistice. In a 90 minute piece that leads to skimming and obvious beats hit over and over again – my jaw hung open as I watched a nameless soldier say, sarcastically, “You think this war is going to end all wars? The cycle’s going to start again in 20 years!” This cringey dialogue is interspersed with riffs on cinematizing the work (lots of faux slow motion) and stabs at irreverence as in a way too long riff on “Family Game Night” with actors representing each county and ending with Serbia tapping the Austro-Hungarian Empire in a game of “Duck Duck Goose” that becomes, of course, Archduke Ferdinand’s death.
Bursts of what could have been in heart-gripping technicolor do bubble up through the cracks of the gray. Ambre Shoneff’s Mary Borden – famed nurse whose book gave the piece its name – is remarkable throughout with a particularly chilling, gorgeous recitation of Borden’s “The Song of the Mud.” Joe Kopyt’s fine, winking performance as pioneering surrealist poet Apollinaire dangles hope there’s going to be more of a parallel drawn between him and Borden and the changing use of poetry in this newly claustrophobic war that sadly comes to fruition.
Sarah Perry as playwright Cicely Hamilton is the brains behind Lena Ashwell’s (Mandy Mitchell) efforts to bring entertainment to the troops. Perry and Mitchell have fantastic chemistry with one another and Perry’s subtle painting of the indefatigable belief that art is worth dying for and as essential as clean water provided some of the most moving sequences in the performance. Zack Meyer’s appearance as Dr. WHR Rivers’ defense of his pioneering use of talk therapy to and his vociferous rebuke of electroshock is stirring even as the writing takes too much for granted in the narrative. How much of the audience would know why he thinks early electroshock was short-sighted torture? No defense comes out of the beleaguered actor having to pay the administrator he’s berating. Beyond that confusion, It sets up a remarkable but sadly never developed parallel in the valuing of the soul between Hamilton/Ashwell and Rivers from different directions. Kahla Tisdale’s Addie Hunton representing the dismal treatment of black American soldiers during the war is a gripping performance that, like but even more than Rivers and mental health, deserves to feel less like an afterthought.
Forbidden Zones has moments of sublime, shocking beauty. But the war that changed the course of modern warfare and escalated the arc of technology as well as inspired some of the most horrific, moving art of all time deserved a sharper knife.
Forbidden Zones: The Great War runs through April 9 with shows at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 3:00 p.m. Sunday. For tickets and more info, visit theatre.osu.edu.