One woman show is a tour de force

By Jim Lowe

WESTON — At a decaying New York City high school, Miss Sun, an aspiring actress, is brought in to teach theater to perhaps the worst class of 10th graders in the entire school system.

She attempts to get them to put on a play, and for the six weeks allotted to the project, she cajoles, fights, runs from and loves her difficult charges.

Elizabeth Wilson plays all 17 characters with an easy virtuosity in the Weston Playhouse production of “No Child …,” Nilaja Sun’s one-woman show, through Aug. 10 at the Weston Rod & Gun Club. However, there isn’t anything easy about this heart-wrenching and dramatic story, but there is plenty of humor in this excellent production.

“No Child …” is based on Sun’s own experience in the New York City school system. Set at Malcolm X High School in the Bronx, Miss Sun is charged with teaching theater to a class of kids who aren’t likely to make it through life.

The school janitor, who narrates the story, describes the kids as delinquents; the principal calls them “challenging,” but adds, “I believe in them”; and the students describe themselves as convicts, marched past metal detectors, with little control over their lives.

First, Miss Sun is confronted by the fact that most students don’t arrive for class until halfway through the period. And, when they do, they’re more interested in mocking her earnestness than anything she has to offer.

Miss Sun wants the class to learn the Timberlake Wertenbaker play, “Our Country’s Good” (based on Thomas Keneally’s novel, “The Playmaker”), in which 18th-century British marines and their charges, convicts at an Australian penal colony, attempt to put on a play. After announcing the project, Miss Sun has second thoughts as to whether the play has any value for these ghetto youngsters, but the students themselves point out that their lives are like the convicts’ with few if any choices.

Miss Sun and her students endure more tragedies, issues and problems that those in most school districts. At one point, she decides to quit, but finds that there is a wonderful reason to persevere.

This is a wonderful play and, directed by Johanna Gruenhut, Wilson does a truly convincing job of, not only portraying these myriad characters, but of conveying this heart-wrenching and heart-warming story. Occasionally, character delineations were a little fuzzy at Sunday’s performance, but only very occasionally.

Wilson created these 17 characters, not only with subtle and not-so-subtle changes in voice and dialect, but by seemingly changing her body. It’s hard, though, to imagine the diminutive Wilson as a male janitor, but perhaps a female one?

The production is minimal, but the decaying schoolroom set by Timothy Mackabee, seemingly authentic costume by Rachel Kurland, effective lighting by Travis McHale, and unobtrusive sound design by Kimberly Fuhr all contribute to the statement. This is an entertaining but powerful production.