PHOTO: K. Fordney
Peter Wray (graduate-theatre) portrays Camus in the performance of The Windows of Albert Camus.

Reviewed by MELISSA DUGAN
Collegian Staff Writer

If you want to be senselessly entertained, don't go to The Windows of Albert Camus -- although there is a guy in the play who does a short but really great Marvin the Martian impression.

The actors skillfully bring more serious characters to The Playhouse Theatre stage, even though their portrayals of Camus, Samuel Beckett and Antonin Artaud can hardly be labeled "serious." The thought-provoking play presents Camus, Beckett and Artaud, along with many others, with a touch of humor.

Among the others storming the play's senseless world are Nazis, Meursault from The Stranger, Seinfeld, Darth Vader, Jerry Lewis and the play's director, Gabriel Grilli -- or rather, graduate student Bradley White acting as Grilli.

If you're a little confused, relax. You're just another victim of our absurd universe.

As the play's program quotes Camus, "All meaning is lost, and only existence remains."

When the lights came up at intermission Tuesday night, many members of the crowd asked each other, "Did you understand it?" and pulled out their programs for clarification.

"It really helped me when I read the program," said Esther Sukiennik (senior-biobehavioral health), a student in the audience. "I think I would have understood the play better if I'd read the material beforehand."

Sukiennik, like many of the people watching the production, came to the Playhouse to fulfill a requirement for her theatre class.

Consequently, some audience members sat with glazed eyes and arms folded across their chests, showing signs of life only when they checked their watches. Fortunately or unfortunately, some of these apathetic observers left at intermission.

The crowd members who remained observed the entirety of an unusual and largely symbolic play.

The piece features dialogue, music and dance in a well-unified interweaving that requires significant brain activity to appreciate. The music, as well as the lighting and set design, follows the production exactly. In one scene, the speakers blare The Cure's "Killing an Arab" after Meursault kills the Arab, and dancers invade the stage with glittering costumes and rapid movements.

"I thought the use of lighting and colors made the play more dramatic," Erin Galvin (sophomore-political science) said.

The performers' movements and eccentric costumes (the performers don a lot of cartoonish masks -- one guy wears an oversized head and rides a bicycle) let the story flow out in a beautiful contrast to the scenes that were more dialogue-focused. Without some background of the production's subject matter, however, the choreographed scenes can be difficult because they're never verbally explained.

The play as a whole ties its heavily philosophic themes to both current events and timeless issues such as television, technology and war, adding humor and relevance to the production. But even with the connection, many people found themselves perplexed.

"It was interesting," said both Galvin and Sukiennik, as well as other students, at the end of the play.

They could find no other words for it and no explanation.

But maybe that's the idea. The Windows of Albert Camus is a play about the absurdity of human existence.

With that in mind, shouldn't it raise more questions than it answers?

The Windows of Albert Camus will be shown at 8 p.m. every night through Friday and at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Playhouse.