A real treat for Saint Louis University students, Extremities, a completely student-directed production, is playing this weekend on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Xavier Hall studio theater located on the ground level. Limited seating is available and admission is by donation, with a $2 minimum.
Extremities is a play in two acts that depicts the experience of a young woman named Marjorie (sophomore Lindsey Trout), who has a sexually violent run-in with a mysterious man (freshman Justin Leibrecht). The ensuing backlash of the catastrophe begins to envelope not only Marjorie’s mind and behavior, but also that of her two roommates, Terry and Patricia (freshman Sarah Burmann and sophomore Kathleen Grim, respectively).
The pivotal point of Extremities is a sexually-violent scene that plays with such authenticity that the experience encroaches upon the audience’s own composure and comfort. However, the scene is not meant to discourage attendance, because its true overall effect works as a poignant example of realistic drama and adds to the flow of the performance.
This is where Extremities allures the person seeking a more visceral, meaningful and even topical drama in a world full of dry television shows and trivial films that have only temporary impact. In that respect, the piece grants a “truer” satisfaction, challenging an audience’s understanding of fear, rape, safety and justice. As a realistic play, the action and beauty of this piece are placed naked and raw before the audience, allowing each audience member to perceive his or her own meaning in the play’s action and to generate some great discussion afterwards.
Extremities was written by William Mastrosimone and first performed onstage in 1982, and a terrible film adaptation starring Farrah Fawcett was released in 1986. Mastrosimone supposedly decided to write the play shortly after he had an encounter with a female victim of a recent sexual assault. Specifically, the woman told Mastrosimone that she had had one moment during the rape in which she could have prevented the rapist from going on, but did not. The woman later commented that she desired to make the perpetrator “feel the same pain that she felt,” said the director of the SLU performance, senior T. Nicole Kirk. Such emotion became Mastrosimone’s inspiration and impetus to write the piece.
Kirk is one reason why this production is so special, as she is a matriculating student. As such, this play is a concrete piece of work directed by a member of the student body and not merely the result of the theater department faculty.
Kirk chose the show based on a combination of opinions from her and the faculty desiring to do a more realistic and linear piece-something that Kirk says is relatively new in her repertoire. “This play’s graphic, it’s dirty . there is a lot of activity onstage,” Kirk said. “We tried not to shy away from the violence.” But violence is not the exclusive focus. The play “is about the misuse of people and how our own actions . impact the actions of others,” Kirk said. “No crime is simple.”
A deep, penetrating piece, Extremities is ideal for those looking to add a little theatrical excitement to their weekend excursions or seeking a solid slice of thought-provoking drama.
