'Flies': Golding's Ageless Lost Boys

By Chip Crews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 19, 2002; Page C05

"Lord of the Flies" is not an obvious candidate for small-scale dramatization: A plane crash leaves a gaggle of English schoolboys stranded on a lush, uninhabited Pacific island. They attempt an orderly life for a time, but in the end chaos and mayhem prevail. The theatrical challenges -- among them very young, very complex characters and multiple settings as the kids range over the island -- are considerable. But Rorschach Theatre, a young troupe with no taste for the easy way, has taken the bait and delivered a production that scales some of the hurdles and finesses a few others.

Novelist William Golding's stated aim was "to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature," and his parable became one of the more widely read books of the 20th century. Nigel Williams's 1995 adaptation follows the story closely, in both action and theme. The boys -- here limited to 10, two of them played by females -- quickly organize and choose as their chief the straight-arrow Ralph, whose priorities center on building and maintaining a fire that will attract a passing ship. Ralph is challenged and ultimately eclipsed by the more savage Jack, whose lust for blood, both animal and human, intoxicates the others. In this tropical microcosm, Golding argues, lie the roots of our own undoing.

In addition to Ralph (Hugh T. Owen) and Jack (Jason Stiles), the novel's other main characters are all preserved, among them the sad outcast Piggy (Jason W. Gerace), the budding mystic Simon (Karl Miller) and the sadistic Roger (Wyatt Fenner). Williams's script is a feat of compression, and the action proceeds swiftly. But inevitably many nuances are lost, and two or three characters are seriously underwritten.

Since its founding in 1999, Rorschach has sought to make a virtue of its homelessness, successfully staging plays in various "found spaces" as well as more conventional venues. This time the drama is played out in the old sanctuary of Calvary Methodist Church on Columbia Road. It's a narrow room, but set designer Matt Soule has crafted an imaginative vertical playing area that extends, level by level, all the way to the choir loft. Director Grady Weatherford keeps the action boiling, with as many as three plot lines in motion simultaneously. He's abetted in this by Adam Magazine's notable lighting design.

But the space is something of an echo chamber, which often defeats the cast. Much of the dialogue is shouted, youthful passions being what they are, and the words are usually lost once the yelling begins. It doesn't help that the actors' English accents are both generally unconvincing and sometimes hard to understand. (Why is it that an American's English accent is often so much harder to parse than the real thing?)

Golding's Ralph is a lad of 12, and the other boys' ages range downward from there. The cast here, understandably, is older than that -- at least three are college graduates -- but for the most part that doesn't hamper credibility. It is odd, certainly, to hear a character on the cusp of manhood prattle on about building a sundial or, on other occasions, recall the words of his auntie. Still, you don't have to be 12 to be malicious or foolhardy, and the story plays.

The actors mostly perform with a youthful earnestness, neither impeding the story nor particularly enriching it. There are a couple of exceptions: Stiles captures the ferocity of Jack; he's the kind of angry, assertive kid who so often rules a young roost. And Fenner's Roger is pretty terrific. Between the casual pleasure he draws from inflicting pain on the weak and the low-eyed deference he pays to Jack, you can see the fear that lives inside bullies everywhere.

Adaptations are tricky. Yes, they should be judged independently of their source material, and no, that's not entirely possible. Clearly Williams approaches "Lord of the Flies" with the utmost respect; his goal is to present Golding's story in another form. And on that basis, admirers of the book may feel a twinge on behalf of poor Piggy. The character, perhaps the most pathetic on the island, is not just a myopic fat kid. He's fussy, indignant, demanding, humorless -- an orphan who's known little besides rejection and has no tricks to counter it. You may wince at the way he's treated, but then you wince again, realizing you probably wouldn't like him either. Most of that is missing from the play -- here he's a rather odd chubby guy who can't see without his glasses. And also missing is a lot of the character's significance.

But there is other significance here. This cautionary tale was first published nearly a half-century ago, and the headlines tell us that it's no less immediate today. Rorschach Theatre's production is not a perfect thing -- it looks a lot better than it sounds -- but it grasps the story and holds on tight.

Lord of the Flies, adapted by Nigel Williams from the William Golding novel. Directed by Grady Weatherford. Costumes, Ivania Stack. Sound design, Brian Keating. With Maggie Galuber, Evan Casey, Adam Jurotich, Sean Robinson and Meredith A. Kiffer. Approximately 1 hour 50 minutes. At Calvary Methodist Church, 1459 Columbia Rd. NW, through April 6. Call 703-715-6707.