A tour de force star performance elevates ‘No Child ...'
In the show, Ms. Sun has chosen to stage Timberlake Wertenbaker's 1988 play, 'Our Country's Good,' about a group of 18th-century convicts in Australia who mount a play that illustrates the power of theater to motivate, illuminate, and transform. But after making this choice, she wonders about the parallels between the Australian prisoners and her teenage students, who live with bars on their apartment windows, and must pass through metal detectors to get to class every day (a security guard repeatedly shouts 'Go back!' every time a detector buzzes).
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Frustrated by her students' lack of enthusiasm and resistance to participation, Ms. Sun decides to quit, only to be persuaded to return by the school's indefatigable principal, and supported by a new, no-nonsense homeroom teacher. Of course, there are a series of obstacles that are swiftly overcome before the triumphant performance.
While there are no surprises in 'No Child …,' Sun infuses her story with enough sincerity, humor, pathos, and occasional poetry to win us over (the girls bathroom, for example, emits the evocative smells of 'makeup, hair pomade, and gossip'). Rather than unfurl one character's story at a time, Sun allows the students' reactions to tumble out, so that Turner, while still seated in a classroom chair, uses expressive body language to communicate comments and conversations that bounce back and forth between Sun and several students.
This Gloucester Stage production rises above some of the stereotypes in Sun's material thanks to the outstanding collaboration between Turner and director Pascale Florestal. Sun's 75-minute play moves swiftly and yet never feels rushed, thanks to Florestal's pacing and Turner's chameleon-like shifts from one character to another, accomplished effortlessly with a combination of posture adjustments, facial expressions, and vocal inflections. Turner is so convincing, we always know exactly who's speaking and what's motivating their behavior, no matter how quickly the conversations progress.
Florestal also deftly guides Turner to work across every corner of Cristina Todesco's deceptively simple stage (notice those stained, industrial floor tiles and the tinted windows, subtly lit by Amanda Fallon). Although Turner moves back and forth and around the stage with only a pair of classroom chairs, the custodian's trash barrel, and a dust mop for props, her shifts in time and space always feel natural and unhurried.
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Thanks to Turner's unpretentious but eloquently detailed performance, we are reminded of the hard reality of how poorly resourced our public education system is compared to the outsized impact teachers and other school workers have on their students.
NO CHILD …
Play by Nilaja Sun. Directed by Pascale Florestal. Presented by Gloucester Stage Company through Aug. 23. Tickets: $18-$72.
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