Regional – River Hills, WI: Acacia Theatre Company at St. Christopher’s Church’s Norvell Commons.
March 7-March 23, 2025
Drama.
Author: Christopher Fry.
Director: Elaine Wyler.
Critic: Anne Siegel (March 2025).
***
It’s the time of year when a good solid meal is still welcomed, and in this chilly spring season Acacia Theatre Company presents one of its meatier plays, A Sleep of Prisoners by Christopher Fry.
More than a generation has passed since the late British poet/playwright Christopher Fry (The Lady’s Not for Burning, Ring Round the Moon) penned this play. Written in the wake of World War II, Fry takes us inside a makeshift prisoner-of-war camp in an abandoned church.
Although Fry was a notable playwright in his day, his plays are rarely performed (perhaps with the exception of his two best-known plays written above). Fry is also remembered as one of the screenwriters of the 1959 blockbuster, Ben-Hur. Happily, Acacia offers this rare opportunity to glimpse the brilliance of Fry’s literary brilliance.
Acacia, a Christian-themed theater company, doesn’t often choose plays that are as theologically based as this one. One can easily see how this company was drawn to A Sleep of Prisoners. (Even God makes a brief appearance as one of Fry’s characters.)
Prospective audiences should note that a deep historical knowledge of World War II is not required to understand this play. The events that unfold could apply to any US war in the past century.
Fry, who grew up as a preacher’s son, intended that this play should be performed in a church, as it was during its 1951 opening in England. Although Acacia’s current home IS inside a church, the play does not take place in the main sanctuary. Instead, audiences must head to the downstairs Norvell Commons. Within the commons is a lovely, intimate theater space, with excellent sound and lighting capabilities, not to mention great sightlines for every viewer. The theater’s moveable, cushioned seats, which line a series of rising platforms, offer one of the comfiest settings of any theater in town.
And the space’s black-box flexibility offers opportunities to create whatever sort of stage is required. Acacia’s set designs lean toward the minimal, making it the perfect occupant for the theater’s dimensions.
A Sleep of Prisoners begins with a group of three captured British prisoners who are tossed into the dark confines of a church. They are greeted by another prisoner (Tim Meadows) who has settled in somewhat earlier in the month. Some of what lies ahead can be guessed by looking at the character’s names: Private David King (Jason Will), Private Peter Able (Kerruan Sheppard) and Corporal Joseph Adams (AJ Magoon).
Following a sudden, violent encounter between two of the prisoners, the soldiers try to rest amid the frequent sounds of bullets whizzing and bombs exploding just outside. Before turning in, one of the soldiers plays hymns on the church organ. Another discovers a Bible printed in English, and reads from it behind a pulpit.
The soldier’s uneasy sleep is interrupted by vivid dreams, some of them drawn from biblical parables. The audience can easily pick up brief snippets of Old Testament stories such as Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Abraham and Issac, etc.
The drama’s abrupt switch from dreams to real-life events makes things somewhat difficult for audiences to sort out. Sequences of Fry’s dialogue also drift into poetry, which is wonderful to hear but doesn’t always serve to unravel the play’s intertwining themes. The scenes prove to be equally challenging for the actors as well as the audience.
Overall, one gets the sense that Fry is dealing not only with real physical conflict faced by soldiers but also the characters’ emotional conflict. Basically, each character is confronted by the reality of good people who must do bad things to achieve their cause.
As the men wonder about their own futures during confinement, they also attempt to sort out their spiritual lives as well. The endless stretches of waiting, waiting, waiting are used by the playwright to mine the complexities of each character’s soul.
Longtime Acacia director Elaine Wyler has done a terrific job of capturing all of the play’s myriad themes within a production that lasts about 65 minutes (no intermission). Her goal is shaped and delivered by four outstanding actors. Many of these actors are familiar Acacia faces, particularly David Sapiro, Jason Will and AJ Magoon. Newcomer Kerruan Sheppard holds his own with these veteran performers, and the resulting ensemble is a tightly-knit, compelling force.
Only the longest-imprisoned character, Tim Meadows (Sapiro), manages to accept their horrific conditions with a measure of acceptance. He is a steadying rock that, one guesses, will eventually get all of them through this episode.
Some production elements that provide a backdrop to this story include: Ashley Petrowsky (set design), Katlyn Rogers Kelly (costume design), Dan Hummel (lighting design) and especially Samuel Fitzwater-Butchart (sound design). Props (by Matt Norby) look realistic. The work of fight director Nicole Magnusson is evident in scenes involving physical skirmishes.
L to R: Jason Will, Kerruan Sheppard, and A.J. Magoon Photo: Melinda Rhodebeck
See the review by clicking here.