Arts: Duke Players Lab Theater presents Trotsky and Tape

Black box theater, while often freeing, produces a number of challenges--sets are often simple, funding low and time limited. The small scale of the theater and scarcity of technical aids also heighten the importance of everything on stage, from the emotion to the props. Two one-act plays, Variations on the Death of Trotsky and Tape, presented by Duke Players Lab Theater and opening tonight, grapple with such limitations and succeed, with occasionally uneven efficiency. Variations on the Death of Trotsky, a short piece by David Ives and directed by Caroline Haubold, opens the night with a burst of humor. Leon Trotsky, played by Jeremy Chapman, discovers an axe smashed into the back of his head with the help of an Encyclopedia Britannica and his wife, played by Caroline Patterson. They postulate on the reasons for the axe in his skull, how long he might have to live, the virtues of "buried" versus "smashed" and what they should tell the cook about dinner.

Although their accents are more "unidentifiable" than Russian, Chapman and Patterson enjoy a nice rapport, and Chapman's increasingly outlandish deaths are a nice touch. As Trotsky and his wife replay the possibilities of his death in the "Variations" of the title, they repeat themselves and get a bit static, but soon get a welcome break with the entrance of Ramon, the Mexican communist gardener who wielded the axe now embedded in Trotsky's skull. Move over Sigma Chi: Ramon, played with gusto by Farokh Irani, embodies a host of stereotypes about Mexicans, from his glittery sombrero to his servility to his libidinous glances towards Mrs. Trotsky, but it works.

Tape, by Stephen Berber, takes on rather different territory. Vince, a volunteer firefighter/dope dealer played by Michael Gentry, meets with high school friend John, played by Michael Ayers, the night before the opening of a low-budget film which might jumpstart John's directorial career. Vince accuses John of date-raping a mutual friend, Amy, played by Ashley Carlson, in high school. The ensuing action reveals the competitive nature of their friendship and raises a number of questions about domination, fear and the definition of rape. The play itself is snappy: Dialogue shoots across the stage, with pauses as pregnant as the revelations that follow--it can, however, get repetitive, as characters dance around issues for minutes at a time. Director Paige Schweitzer works with the challenge, keeping the actors moving enough to hold the tension, and when the plot twists, it's a genuine surprise. Gentry, Ayers and Carlson all offer invested and thoughtful performances--particularly challenging for Gentry and Ayers, who share the stage for most of the play, although sometimes their interactions lacked a necessary bit of fear.

Tape is less broadly funny than Trotsky, but some of its strongest moments lie in its humor, often throwaway lines of Gentry's that take a second to sink in. Inversely, the made-to-entertain Trotsky reaches its height at the end, in Trotsky's rumination on death, a surprisingly touching moment considering the deliciously fake axe smashed in the back of his head.

Variations on the Death of Trotsky and Tape run Nov. 13, 14, and 15 at 8 p.m. and 16 at 2 p.m. in East Campus's Branson Theater. Tickets are $3 in advance, $6 at the door.