“It’s the zenith of the whole three years,” instructor Mike Bernardin concludes, spreading his hands for emphasis. As the director of the third-year drama production, colloquially called PROD, he’s spent the past five months preparing our UEA actors for one of the most laborious shows they’ve ever done. It’s technically two shows, but the two are meant to be seen together as one cohesive body of work, a feat which requires careful selection and planning on Bernardin’s part. “It was simpler once I landed on that question of ‘what does it mean to be a good person in a capitalist society?’, and I suppose I was seeing a lot of news about EU technocrats on visits to Eastern Europe, and the ongoing soliciting of interest in places like Georgia and Ukraine for accession to the EU. And lots of talk about how the EU was promoting democracy in these places. But at the same time, places like Turkey which had been trying to accede to the EU for years now, were being told that their human rights records weren’t up to snuff, and being interrogated on, y’know, ‘are you good enough people?’” Bernardin’s thought process led to the selection of The Good Person of Szechwan, a surrealist play by Bertolt Brecht, and the Thatcherite play Top Girls by Caryl Churchill. Both plays have comedic elements to them, but they maintain an introspective quality insofar as the dilemmas they propound to the audience. What does it mean to be a good person? Top Girls poses the question slightly more directly, placing it on the feminist social ground of the play. Bernardin phrases it, “What does it cost a woman in a patriarchal society to be a ‘winner’?” At heart, these two questions have the same causal issues; why are we punished for good deeds? Why are “feminine” qualities, like being caring and empathetic, looked down on and taken advantage of? Why is capitalism antithetical to feminism? It’s easy to bridge the two plays when you’ve seen them, because they both handle this social criticism. 

Bridging the two plays requires far more work for the actors. I was lucky enough to coax my drama department friend (thanks Josh Scales!) into getting me an interview with Bernardin, as well as the opportunity to sit in on one of their character workshops. So, after wheedling all the artistic genius which went into directing PROD out of Bernardin, I shuffled across the foyer of the drama studio to the rehearsal. Every detail, from the poses of each character to the way they walk, is methodically ironed out and tweaked to suit the part. The way the characters react to obstacles in their path, the way they position themselves in relation to one another, everything you can possibly imagine is acted out and dissected until it reaches the actors’ satisfaction. Despite working on two different plays, there’s a real sense of togetherness among the students; it’s their last show with each other, and they’re all pitching in to make it their best. After witnessing their combined efforts to better each other in the workshop, I have every confidence the two plays will shine as one production. 

On the subject of splitting things in two, I caught up with Taku Gomera after the workshop. He plays Wang, or rather one half of Wang, in The Good Person of Szechwan. “In the beginning it was weird, playing this role that wasn’t meant to be split, which we’ve split up. But I think after the first session with the script and knowing the direction we were taking it, it kind of just clicked from there between me and Todd. It became a thing of I think, the way that I play comedy and humour directly complements the way Todd does it as well. So we both bring different things to the character, but it works very well brought together. I’ve really enjoyed it, and it’s been really fun.” Bernardin split several characters, having a different actor play the same role in different scenes. I questioned Taku on what he thought that did for Wang; does it help expand the character, and give Wang a greater multiplicity? Is the audience meant to feel like they don’t truly know Wang because of his actual two-faced-ness? “100%. No two actors are going to give the same performance. Watching someone else take the scene, you have to think, you know, ‘he’s got this personality as Wang, no he’s got this personality as Wang,’ you don’t know what it’s going to be, and it opens up the avenue for you to explore what you think the character is and what he represents.” As for what the actors hope you’ll take from the performance, Taku said he hopes they come along for the ride. PROD is on May 21st- 24th, and I hope you’ll see both shows, as they reflect on each other as one brilliant production.