REVIEW Production of 'Gamma Rays' at YSU is thought provoking

The actors' performances are superb.
By L. CROW
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
A good drama can be judged, perhaps, by the extent to which the audience can see themselves in the characters. In a great drama, however, the audience can relate to the characters, even when they are unsavory, disturbed and frightening. "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the Moon Marigolds" is not only a great drama, but the performance at YSU's Spotlight Arena is simply superb.
The play, written by Paul Zindel, was first performed in 1964 and later made into a movie starring Joanne Woodward. It is loosely about his own life, growing up in a single-parent household. The plot is simple: An unstable mother is rearing her two teenage daughters, one who is flighty and suffers from epileptic seizures and mental problems, and the other who attempts to live out her dreams, and sees beauty and hope in the world. But the plot is not as important as the characters and the depth in which they are explored.
The household
Tillie, or Matilda, played by Stephanie Ottey, is not very pretty, wears frumpy clothes, and the kids make fun of her. Her mother often keeps her home from school. But she is inspired by her science teacher, Mr. Goodman, and has fallen in love with the atom, fascinated that these same tiny particles that make up her being have been present since the beginning of time. Mr. Goodman has also given her a pet rabbit. She has a way of remaining focused on the wonder of life, even though the world around her is insane.
Her sister, Ruth, played by Noelle Nackino, smokes her mother's cigarettes and wears red lipstick and sweaters that are too tight. She is embarrassed to be Tillie's sister. She lies, is mean-spirited, and has a history of mental instability. She has nightmares and is afraid of death.
Their mother, Beatrice, played by Nicole Dionisio, goes beyond mean-spirited. She has lost all connection with anything positive or life-giving. She is cruel, hateful, resentful. Her interaction with the other characters is bone-chilling.
The family has a boarder, Nanny, played by Missy Bookbinder, an old lady who uses a walker, and succumbs to the abuses of Beatrice with an empty stare. She is a shell that gives no indication of awareness, as she mutely drinks the cups of hot water and honey Beatrice places before her.
Pivotal scene
One night during a thunderstorm, as Ruth screams in fright, Beatrice attempts to soothe her, and for the first time, we catch a glimmer of humanness within her hardened exterior. We hear of her troubled childhood, her father's insanity, and her own recurring nightmare, in which beauty has been snatched away, leaving only hopelessness and desolation. We finally begin to understand.
In Act Two, the dynamics change. Tillie is a runner-up in the science fair for her experiment with exposing man-in-the moon marigold seeds to the effects of radiation. Ruth is now proud to be her sister, and excitedly helps her prepare for the school assembly. Tillie is in competition for first place with Janice, played by Jennifer McCombs, who has boiled and skinned a cat alive. The events that happen in this act are heartbreaking and heart-stopping. The epileptic seizure scene leaves the audience feeling numbed and paralyzed.
To say this play is intense is an understatement. There isn't one moment of relief from the sickening tension that pervades. Yet it forces us to address universal fears, the nightmares that all of humanity holds within. By seeing this play, we bring the unspeakable to the surface, process it and let it go, and in the end, we find that we have grown.
XPerformances are tonight at 8 and Sunday at 3 p.m. in Spotlight Arena Theater, Bliss Hall, on the YSU campus. Tickets are $5. Call (330) 941-3105 for more information.