When someone comes home after being away for a long time, they are usually met with joy and excitement, however, this isn’t the case for En in “Holler River,” who after experiencing the horrors of war comes back to a town devoid of hope.
Performed by the NIU School of Theatre and Dance, “Holler River,” written by Caridad Svich, has performances from Friday through Sunday (Feb. 14 to 16) and Thursday through Saturday (Feb. 20 to 22) in the Black Box Theatre in the Stevens Building.
The play tells the story of En, a soldier returning from war who discovers his town is barely recognizable due to damage and grapples with this realization and emotional distress.
Based on Shakespeare’s “Henry IV: Part One,” the play is heart wrenching as townspeople forget who they are and turn to drinking liquor. At one point the atmosphere is so bad a fight breaks out between En against townsfolk Jo and Axe which only stops when Fall, En’s mentor, shoots his gun in the air.
Gibson Cima, a professor of theater history, conducted a discussion at the end of the show and shared his thoughts on the performance.
“I thought it was a lovely lyrical play,” Cima said. “The style is very poetic. You have to fill in the blanks in the dialogue.”
Kylee Moore, a sophomore majoring in B.F.A. acting, plays Skyler and Riley, two soldiers with different experiences with war, and explained how she connected with her characters.
“I related to not taking anything seriously with Skyler,” Moore said. “Skyler is fun to play with because unhingedness is fun to do.”
Richmond Fredrickson, a sophomore B.F.A. acting major, connected with her characters Clem and Morgan through their visual expression.
“I connected with hair and makeup,” Fredrickson said. “It made my characters more feminine.”
The play is set in the South and it can be difficult to understand noncohesive dialogue, but the performers’ acting added to the emotional weight in the final scene where En and newly deployed Riley reflect on a stitched American flag. The final scene proves that when everything seems dark, hope persists.
