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Pavillion plays through the universe, lost love
Margaret Reimer, Margaret Reimer - arbiter journalist-
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Story
“The Pavilion” is a play about coming to terms with life’s tragedies and the complexity of human relationships.
The play is set in Pine City, Mn at the class of 1990’s high school reunion. Peter (Dwayne Blackaller) is trying to mend things with his ex-girlfriend Kari (Hollis Welsh). The Narrator (Andrea Caban) acts as many of their classmates.
COURTESY ANDY LAWLESS/BOISE CONTEMPORARY THEATRE (left to right) Narrator; Andrea Caban, Peter; Dwayne Blackaller, Kari; Hollis Welsh
It is a story with which anyone who has ever had nostalgia for a past relationship can relate. “The Pavilion” focuses on Peter and Kari who were high school sweethearts sharing the most adrenaline filled moments of life with each other when everything was new and different.
They have memories of cutting class together to walk along the beach, and memories of holding each other for the first time. They were voted cutest couple in the yearbook.
Senior year however, the couple encountered its first crisis. Rather than staying and working things out with Kari, Peter moved away and never spoke to her until this night. Twenty years later he comes back to try and mend things.
The universe was constructed in a 15 by 35 foot space. Light bulbs covered the ceiling representing the cosmos. A soft lavender light bathed the stage. The effects were mesmerizing.
COURTESY ANDY LAWLESS/BOISE CONTEMPORARY THEATRE The set is mesmerizing
The play begins with The Narrator giving a poetic and humorous synopsis of the beginning of time. In language that sparkles with poetically written prose, The Narrator introduces Peter.
Peter steps onto the stage holding a bouquet and sporting a naïve grin. Blackaller plays the character of Peter as a man that is extremely likeable, but self-preoccupied. He wants to mend things with Kari but has not thought out how lasting the pain was he inflicted 20 years before.
Welsh gives Kari complexity through faraway looks and wistful smiles. The character is that of a woman who has faced a life of disappointment. She has worked at the same boring bank job for 20 years. And she is in an unhappy marriage with a man who is obsessed with golf. Her experiences have “pushed her 17 degrees off from where she wanted to be,” she said while talking to Peter.
The Narrator, played by Caban, moves between roles acting the parts of all of Kari and Peter’s former classmates. She smoothly transitions moving to a different spot on the stage. One moment Caban was playing the stoned mayor, Cookie, then she became a repressed lesbian FDA agent, then she was playing the God-like narrator who sends shooting stars flying above Peter and Kari’s heads.
Welsh and Blackaller had great chemistry. The fights between Peter and Kari were effective at creating tension. Welsh did a fantastic job conveying the pain Kari went through after the break up. Welsh’s voice broke in pain while delivering her lines. At times Blackaller played the role without enough emotion. This created the feeling that Peter had his head completely in the clouds.
All three actors deserve credit for perfectly executing the nasal Mid-western accents the general public is familiar with from “Fargo.”
“It’s about finding the balance between the dissatisfaction with what is, and your affection for it,” Craig Wright said. “Ultimately, it is deciding that I have more affection than I have disappointment. Therefore I will affirm what is.”