Theatre Review of The Wolves by Sarah Delappe

 

Saw Sarah Delappe’s play titled The Wolves last Sunday afternoon in the small studio at Theatre Cedar Rapids. It premiered Off Broadway in 2016 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in that year. It has been a popular choice at educational theatres for some time because of its cast of ten women and its treatment of the growing pains of young adolescent girls.

Set in the pre-game warm-ups for a female high school soccer season, the piece focuses on the girl’s comments interspersed with their pre-game warm-up exercises. We hear about their sexual problems, menstruation, the integration of new girls onto the team, and ultimately, an injury and tragedy.

Unfortunately, the production falls considerably short of the serious themes presented. The chosen production style was a tunnel with the audience divided into two facing sets of seats. I suspect this was to mirror the competitive stadium sides during matches. The director put his cast into exercise circles a great deal and that managed to give as much face time to the unpeopled sides as to the peopled sides. This meant that every patron saw ¾ of the show in either profile or full back. In our seating position to the right of center in a corner where there was no entrance at all, we had even less full-face contact with the actors.  

This might have worked out if the actors had sufficient vocal strength to be heard and understood even when turned away. I know that these days young actors expect to be miked, but sufficient volume should not be a problem in a theatre that seats barely a hundred people.  More lines were mumbled and spoken to the floor than not. The constant movement and ungainly twisted exercise positions also did not help with breath support. This show desperately needed a vocal coach.

Had I not seen a previous production of the piece, I’m not sure I would have been able to follow the narrative. In one scene the goalie spent scads of energy throwing a ball against the back wall and running laps until exhausted. The folks next to me, who apparently did not hear much of the dialogue that came before, were totally mystified as to what was going on. The death of one of the team’s members in a car crash had been missed. Finally, the big ending featuring the arrival of the mother of the dead girl bringing a bag of oranges, was squashed by lights going down too soon for us to register its importance. She had brought oranges before to help spur the team on earlier. A better and more emotionally riveting lighting choice at the end would have brought the lights down slowly until only a pin spot on the bag of fruit for the team was lit. Then a fast blackout. 

I cannot recommend this production.