In times of sorrow, tragedies often become victims of Hollywood’s dramatic spin. Stories of importance turn into manipulated pieces of art for the sole purpose of entertainment.

‘The Bird and the Two-Ton Weight’ is not one of those examples.

Syracuse alumnus Darcy Fowler brought her audience at Hendricks Chapel a provoking and moving play Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

As part of Remembrance Week, the play was a strong visual display of the pain felt by those who survived the victims of Pan Am 103.

The story followed a confused and lost college grad, Chelsea, and her journey as she dealt with the death of her mother. Heather Robb gave a brilliant reading as Chelsea, who was forced to come home and take care of her brother, Colin (Seth Kirschner), after their mother died of cancer.

Chelsea accidentally receives a package from Scotland addressed to a victim of Pan Am 103.She opens it to find a journal from an SU student, which documented her trip through London up until the time of her death. Reading through the journal, she falls in love with London and grows to admire the writer, Alice.

Upon deciding to return the journal, she meets Alice’s brother Brian, who was only 6 years old at the time of the attack.

In a well-written and powerful monologue, Brian (James Smith) describes waiting at the airport for his sister to come home. He paints a picture of standing in the gate, holding a sign saying, ‘Welcome Home’ when word of a plane crash spreads throughout the terminal.

The most powerful part of the entire reading comes when he describes his mother’s reaction – both jarring and touching.

Fowler’s screenplay is simply compelling and real.

Portraying Chelsea’s quirky but loveable neighbor, Susan, Fowler brought a lot of the light-hearted comedy to the play. The comedy was much needed in a play with the intensity level that Fowler wrote it to be.

The script had a lot of profane language, which made some of the older members of the audience uncomfortable, but was appropriate in the context of the play.

SU grad Carli Fitzgerald came back to read the part of Alice. Her portrayal was light and bubbly, perhaps too much so for the occasionally dark and poetic writing that lined the role.

Nevertheless, by the end of the night, many of the audience members were in tears. Family of survivors came out to see the Syracuse native’s narration, joining those who are relatively new to the SU community.

‘The Bird and the Two-Ton Weight’ managed to turn the reading of a play into an emotional journey. No doubt, the production in full will be worth a trip to New York City.

Rdjone03@syr.edu

Published on October 26, 2008 at 12:00 pm