Anonymous / 2023-12-19
“Show of hands, how many of you would drop the case.” A sea of hands was raised in the drama class, two people sat isolated. In a world driven by money and greed, I can’t help to wonder how many of my classmates were genuine, myself included. Benevolence by Fanny Britt is a dark comedy play shown to the grade 12 and grade 9 drama class on December 13th, 2023. The combination of an amazing script, actors, and directing choices made the play not only thought-provoking but incredibly entertaining as well.
The choice of clothing for characters was noticeably calculated. The vibrant colours of Bruno and the mother, as opposed to those of Gilles and Isabelle, reflected their outlook on society. The outrageousness of Isabelle’s clothes differs from the rest, and it shows that she is putting on a costume to fit in with Bruno and the mother, as hard as she tries she still shares the most similarity with Gilles.
The coat and boots of Zachary are still present in the house, as well as pictures of him, showing the deep sadness and love for Zachary. It is only until the end of the show that the set becomes more abstract, depicting aspects of Gilles’ mind and memory. The use of real food adds a level of depth and realness to the story, which makes me reflect on plays like Bear Grease or Forever Young which had almost all of the sets and props left to interpretation. The maximal set aids the audience in focusing on the actual storyline, as opposed to imagining an entire set piece.
At the beginning of the play, the light acted as a spotlight for Gilles, and later, for his family. When the spotlight was on him, the audience knew that the scene was frozen and that it was Gilles’ turn to narrate or describe his reality. The last scene of the play, it showed Gilles’ mind. The use of the yellow light that we had never seen before, showed not what was going on, but a wrapped dream imagined by Gilles to justify the unacceptable actions he has committed. As the actress of the mother said, losing Gilles would have broken her. Gilles dying was in his mind the right solution, but for his mother and his childhood friend, it was not the right decision.
In the beginning, the house was the main focus of the play, presenting as very maximalist. Having different settings be the empty sides of the house, or even bleeding into the house showed that his anchor was the family. Having the same actor play three different characters, specifically, ones that only showed up in the mind of Gilles’ demonstrated the decline of confidence and stability in Gilles.
The team of actors was very strong, especially when they had little monologues of their own. During Bruno’s speech, Gilles continued to act without speaking, using his eyes and body language to communicate. At one point I noticed that the mother had turned her back on the audience. I thought this was very odd considering that she was still delivering lines. Nonetheless, she delivered said lines with great projecting. Perhaps it was the location in which I was seated, so close to the stage, but her voice was not lost, even with her entire body turned away from the audience.
I am sure that this play has layers which I did not understand, but I hope to revisit this play, seeing as it was one of my favourites we have gone to as a group. The collage of costume design, set placements, lighting, directing choices, and impressive acting, generated a dark and witty show which left me genuinely thinking. And to answer the question, “Would I drop the case?” I don’t know. I believe that more people would act in the way that Gilles did, perhaps myself included.