Relationship Comedy Takes Absurdist Approach

Love requires an effort and unshakable commitment, whatever one’s sexuality. Material possessions too often take possession of our lives. These are the pervading themes of “Swimming in the Shallows,” the all-student spring production by the UND Department of Theatre Arts that opened Tuesday. Shows continue nightly at 7:30 through Saturday in the Lab Theatre located in the basement of the Burtness Theatre building on campus. Tickets are $12 or $6 with a student I.D., and the production is suggested for mature audiences.

Graduate student Debra Berger directed the award-winning 1999 play by Adam Bock, which explores the relationships of three couples. Barb and Bob (Rachel Gulbranson and Tyler Sheeley) are married, but seem to be growing apart since Barb has decided to start giving away her belongings. Carla and Donna (Betsy Downs and Jesi Mullins) are a lesbian couple debating whether to have an official commitment ceremony while Donna struggles to give up smoking. Their friend Nick (Joe Bussey) is an insecure gay man who can never keep a relationship more than a few days until he falls in love with a shark (Chris Harder) at the aquarium where Donna works.

Absurdist theatre, a movement popularized by Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, and others, is noted by disjointed, repetitious, and/or meaningless dialogue (often long monologues) with confusing or intentionally non-realistic situations. Bock’s “Swimming in the Shallows” has a more coherent plot thread than most plays of the genre, but doesn’t hesitate to throw in absurdist elements to emphasize his points. The shark romance does not surface until the play has been going on for a while, but definitely qualifies it as a “comedy of the absurd.”

Critic John Simon has stated, “True absurdism is not less but more real than reality.” Is the shark that Nick tries to woo after all of his relationships with men have failed actually the fish? Or is pursing a shark a metaphor for his own tendency towards self-destructive behavior? And what does one make of the fact that all Nick’s friends first express uneasy surprise at his choice but gradually come to accept it when he tries his hardest to make it work?

As the play begins, Barb seems impulsively influenced by a National Geographic article that describes monks who have only eight possessions each. She immediately decides to rid herself of all unnecessary possessions, much to the consternation of Carla-Carla, who just gave her a birthday gift, but especially of Bob, Barb’s typical middle-class consumer husband. Bob can’t deal with what he considers illogical behavior until Barb’s mania leads to her moving out.

Meanwhile, Carla-Carla and Donna keep having love-hate arguments over Donna’s smoking, while dealing with both Barb and Nick and their problems.
The play’s strongest statement is about accepting people for what they are, but that each member of any couple must make an active commitment to understand and support the other.

The entire cast does a good job of making the characters into real, believable people struggling for happiness as best they can. Bussey’s expressive face gets the most out of his many comic moments, and Harder is obviously having a great time playing the shark. Gulbranson and Sheeley have the most dramatic moments, while Downs and Mullins play off each other well for comic effect.

Graduate student Sara Schaal has designed a simple but very effective set with two benches in front of a rear projection screen to show many locations. The screen then periodically lifts to reveal a window and mirror that represents the aquarium (as Harder “swims” around on the floor). Theatre students Kim Mortenson and Eric Voight designed the costumes and lighting, respectively.

IF YOU GO:

WHAT: Swimming in the Shallows
WHERE: Lab Theatre, Burtness Theatre Bldg., UND
WHEN: Nightly through Sat., Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $12, $6 with student ID
INFO: 1-800-225-5863, (701) 777-4463