“LES LOUPS”: Performances are underway for “Les Loups”. Produced by McCarter Theater and directed by artistic director Sarah Rasmussen, the play runs through October 16 at McCarter’s Berlind Theater. Above, left to right: Teammates 8 (Maggie Thompson), 14 (Isabel Pask), 7 (Jasmine Sharma, 25 (Mikey Gray), 46 (Maria Habeeb), 00 (Renea S. Brown), 2 ( Katie Griffith), 11. (Owen Laheen) and 13 (Annie Fox) discuss current events while practicing soccer. (Photo by T. Charles Erickson)
By Donald H. Sanborn III
McCarter opens his season with Wolves. The 2016 drama depicts a high school girls’ soccer team, various members of which discuss current events — among other, sometimes lighter, topics — while they practice for their games. Wolves was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in the drama category.
Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen directs this spirited production. Although this marks McCarter’s debut Wolves, Rasmussen has prior experience directing the play. His 2019 production at Jungle Theater earned him a Minnesota Theater Award for Outstanding Performative Direction.
In writing Wolves, Sarah DeLappe (who played soccer from ages 8 to 14) taught teenage girls. An exhibit in McCarter Hall quotes her saying, “I felt very close to the current experience of female adolescence. » In a 2017 interview with Lincoln Center Theater and excerpted from McCarter’s printed program, DeLappe explains that she conceived the play “like a war film. But instead of a group of men heading off into battle, you have a group of young women preparing for their soccer games.
Scenic designer Junghyun Georgia Lee covers Berlind’s well-lit stage in green Astroturf, honoring DeLappe’s opening direction of an “indoor soccer field that feels like it goes on forever.” The background is white and gray, but this is deceptive; Jackie Fox’s lighting often adds pops of color.
As Wolves begins, the lighting evolves to the rhythm of contemporary pop music provided by Sound Designer Pornchanok Kanchanabanca. When the footballers come in, they dance like they’re in a nightclub. We know immediately that the room will be imbued with youthful energy.
As teammates stretch or practice their moves, they engage in heated – but, for most, comfortably abstract – discussions about world events, like bringing a war criminal to justice Cambodian Khmer Rouge. As the players kick soccer balls among themselves, they also exchange jokes. As they prepare to take on opposing teams, they also prepare to take on the world around them – and confront a tragedy closer to home.
At first we hear several conversations at the same time. On a wall in McCarter Hall is an enlarged page of DeLappe’s screenplay, allowing us to see how the playwright arranged these simultaneous passages of dialogue into columns, which Rasmussen likened to an orchestral score. The resulting cacophony produces the effect the playwright desired: leaving us to be a “fly on the wall.”
For most of the show, players are identified only by their team numbers (it’s not until later that we hear first names). Even the lone adult on stage is known only by the identity given to her by the game: Soccer Mom.
Raquel Adorno’s costumes support the concept of players’ personal identities emerging from their identities as members of a soccer team. Initially, we see all the players wearing the same colorful uniforms.
Early on, goalie #00 (played by Renea S. Brown) comes out and reappears wearing a purple outfit. Beyond uniforms, personal styles are suggested by headwear, as well as the scarves that #2 (Katie Griffith) knits to raise money for Amnesty International.
Over the course of several weekends, we see the team deal with internal tensions, misunderstandings, and rivalries, all while uniting (and shouting, “We are the wolves!”) to challenge their opponents.
Captain #25, who looks like a drill sergeant, is determined to see the team win at all costs – at one point, he tried to stall for time by skipping the usual stretching routine, endangering the team. player safety (and causing injury to a certain team member). ). As number 25, Mikey Gray strides deliberately across the stage, authoritatively tossing a bag of footballs onto the floor.
The newest player, #46 (Maria Habeeb), is homeschooled and new to the area. She lives with her mother in a yurt; Number 2 causes tension by replacing the malapropism “yogurt”. #46 attempts to brush this aside by putting exaggerated energy into his soccer practice (while chanting, “I live in yogurt. My feelings ain’t hurt”). This sequence gives Habeeb the opportunity to perform some entertaining moves with a ball.
The number 46 is frustrated at being on the bench and expresses keen interest in the striker position. However, the acerbic No.7 (Jasmine Sharma) has always been the attacker; As the team faces the upcoming college tournament, number 25 is reluctant to tamper with success.
Other members of the team include number 8 (Maggie Thompson), who loves The Lord of the Rings; the morbid #11 (Owen Laheen); #13 (Annie Fox), whose brother sells drugs from their basement; and #14, who has a complicated friendship with #7. (In the September 23 performance, Isabel Rodriguez played number 14, replacing Isabel Pask.)
Brown is also notable in a sequence in which #00 reacts to devastating news that affects the entire team. The spirited beginnings of the preceding scenes resemble a nightclub, while this segment is passionate and Brown’s movements are almost balletic. The musical language and lighting change to match the dark mood.
The team generally exists in a bubble. Adults (like the Wolves’ useless coach and a college talent scout) are discussed but never appear on stage. One exception is Soccer Mom (Katharine Powell), who enters to give the team a good-natured but rambling pep talk. Taken aback by this monologue, the actors remain silent, which contrasts sharply with their chatter in previous scenes.
Powell pairs the delivery of her speech with body language that suggests Soccer Mom has too many thoughts racing through her head at once, fighting against each other to get articulate. Soccer Mom doesn’t get much stage time, but Powell makes every moment count.
This writer attended a “Director’s Cut,” during which a scene was rehearsed in front of an audience. What stands out then is the extent to which the actors make the most of what Rasmussen calls a “counterpoint” between their movements and the dialogue. I wrote: “The dialogue is often punctuated by a well-placed kick or the stopping of a ball. Rasmussen compares the screenplay to a musical score; kicks add a percussive effect that accentuates conversations. This remains true.
But attending the “Director’s Cut” didn’t fully prepare audiences to expect the high level of energy that the actors — who often appear to be in perpetual motion — demonstrate throughout the performance. Nor did the rehearsal reveal that Rasmussen, working with the all-female design team, gave the production the showy, expressive aura of a dance piece.
Two divergent comments can be made about this production aesthetic. The first is that it undoubtedly succeeds in drawing the audience into the world and energy of the piece. The second is that, initially, it seems slightly at odds with the slice-of-life realism that DeLappe is determined to simulate with the layers of dialogue.
Nevertheless, Wolves reminds me of a remark from one of my theater teachers, who suggested that a sporting event constituted a theatrical event. By examining production choices on a thematic level, Rasmussen perhaps observes the theatricality inherent in football (or any other sport) and its participants. Reality TV, websites and social media can add style to any everyday event, including soccer practice. Our culture regularly mixes reality with a theatrical twist.
In a 2020 interview with Princeton Magazine (a sister publication of Town Topics), Rasmussen remarks, “It’s so simple, but it’s also powerful to tell stories with intergenerational characters and storylines. ” With Wolves Rasmussen demonstrates this; from the actors and designers, it elicits a vibrant production of a lively and moving play.
Directed by artistic director Sarah Rasmussen, “The Wolves” runs through Oct. 16 at McCarter’s Berlind Theater. McCarter’s website states that parental discretion is advised in cases of strong language and themes; the piece is recommended from 12 years old. For tickets or additional information, visit mccarter.org.
