BFF
BFF By Anna Ziegler
Directed by Ana Eligio
Fred Stone Theatre, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL</strong>
The Rollins Theatrical department occasionally turns the kids loose to do a complete student production – they handle the writing, directing, and acting, along with all those mundane technical challenges like light and sound and costume with only minimal adult supervision. The result often intrigues more than satisfies, and this time we experience an interpersonal drama about dealing inappropriately with death and loss told thought a fast cut montage of flashbacks and constant costume changes.
We begin with Lauren (Megan Borkes) and Eliza (Kaitlyn Schirard) as girls on the edge of puberty, dealing with an endless summer vacation and the nagging itch that life is perfect right now and unlikely to improve with age. We then follow two intercut stories – as Lauren and Eliza mature into sexual beings, Lauren shift her emotional focus to boys and the delightful sins of the flesh as Lauren drifts in a repressed lifestyle of athletics and eating disorder. The older 20 something Lauren meets jittery Seth and adopts Eliza’s name if not her persona. Lauren and Seth are no great lover – each has their own inability to deal with the death of loved ones. When Seth takes the plunge and offers her a ring from Zale’s, she flees, only to crawl back offering that “they just be friends”. In one of the few wise moves in the story, Seth drops her like a bad mortgage.
The acting in the show is up to par, with Schirard’a Eliza successfully transforming from an awkward teen to a hospitalized young women. Borkes shows the frustration of watching her best friend get stuck just before puberty but often comes across as strident and unattractive. Seth might be a bit too nice, a bit too eager to please – he needs to be loved and will pay almost any price for love, up to but not including Lauren. I like to think he sees the flicker of her internal bonfire, and gets off the train before it’s too late.
This is a decent showing for a beginning writer; the concept is sound and the writing displays occasional flashes of brilliance – “today becomes a memory even as it’s happening” caught my ear. It appears the author is writing what she knows stylistically, a hyper active string of flicker-cuts characteristic of modern TV and movies attempt to hold your attention while filling time between ads. Technically, the stage is not up to presenting that eye candy editing, and as a result much time is wasted moving props and changing from one unexciting costume to another. There’s a heartfelt and touching story lurking under all the clutter on stage, but with out the program and some additional ambient audience illuminations, you’ll get lost before you’re sold on the who and why of BFF.
For more information on student productions at Rollins College, please visit http://tars.rollins.edu/theatre/currentseason.shtml
