JoAnn Bromley brings naturalistic grace to her scenes as the Warden's motherly secretary, and Craig Jessup is very good as Peter, the vain pretty-boy whose character, unlike the others, grows and changes during the course of the play. Jessup's intensity and focus hint at what a good prison drama might have been made from this premise. His character is also at the center of the shocking act of violence that serves as a climax to the action and is followed by a denouement of heartfelt farewells and song that proceed, inexplicably, as if nothing untoward had happened, leaving the viewer with a sense of disbelief and confusion that could not have been intended.
The play is subtitled "A Call To Arms," but to be a good polemic it would need to be much more effective as a drama. To be fair, I saw the play on its first weekend and the actors were obviously still getting a feel for their lines, so some improvement might come naturally as they get more performances under their belts. But the fundamental problem is in the play itself. Character-driven drama needs characters who express themselves and communicate with each other in recognizably human ways, and not, as is too much the case here, as mere mouthpieces for causes and opinions, however noble those may be.
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