'Refusal' wins with emotion

REVIEW
	Life in Refusal Friday, March 27 Performance Network

Dank and cold are two words that are commonly associated with Russia. Following this pattern, without experiencing the energy of the main characters, these also might have been terms that would be associated with "Life in Refusal."

Ari Roth, a former University professor, brought his play, "Life in Refusal," to the Performance Network this past Friday for its world premiere.

The play centers on the life of Alison, a Jewish American filmmaker in Russia and her quest to help a Russian Refusnik to emigrate to the United States.

Alison goes to Russia to make a film about science. One of the contacts that she makes is Ben, an old Russian scientist that becomes much more to her than a stolid photograph. Ben, although he keeps up a healthy facade as best he can, needs serious medical treatment that he cannot get in Russia.

The element of the show that maintained the focus of the audience was the honest acting. In the small, intimate black box theater, it is hard not to feel physically close to the characters, but their true performances are what moved them into people's heart.

When someone got angry, they were believeably angry, and when someone cracked a joke to calm down a tense situation, it provided a relief to the audience as well as the onstage characters.

Alison, played by Tracy Leigh Komarmy (director of drama at Washtenaw Community College), was true-to-life in her role as a business executive. As her emotions got in the way of her work and the story got into her heart, the audience was drawn into the fight for Ben's freedom along with her. Her emotional attachment to Ben helped make the audience also care about him.

Leo McNamara, a former University English professor, was charming as Ben. The emotion, visible in his eyes, turned him into his character, his hopes and fears were exposed. His Russian accent sounded as if he really was a native speaker of Russian who was doing his best to speak English.

In the show at some points, some of the characters - Alison especially - talk to the audience, this helped to forward the plot somewhat, but also could possibly have helped link together the most confusing aspect of the play if it had been used more. The 90-minute play takes place during a span of approximately 10 years in several different countries.

Skipping around to different countries and different years made it unclear as to when and where the characters were, and if they were in a flashback or not. This time aspect made parts of the show confusing, it needed better transitions.

The set to the show was not inviting by any means, but at least the color tones were not overly dreary. Neutral sponge-painted walls, doorways with no doors and mauve and tan checkerboard painted floor kept the minimalist set unspecific enough for the many different scenes that the actors would present on this single set. In the few cases when a spotlight was shown on a single actor, the stage was so dark that even the spotlight did not show the whole person who was acting, requiring intimate concentration on what the actor was saying.

"Life in Refusal" would not be a play with the inclination to see every time that it rolled into town, but it did serve its main duty while in the theatre. It was a personal play that came from the heart and that made it important.

"Life in Refusal" runs until April 12 with performances Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $12. Thursdays are pay-what-you-can.

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