The Return of Uncomfortable Melodrama

Watching The Monument is an uncomfortable experience from the start. Opening with a man strapped in an electric chair, struggling against his bonds, the play makes the audience squirm in its very first moments, and maintains that mood for the rest of its duration. Written by Colleen Wagner, it establishes almost as quickly that there is nothing unclear about why Stetko, a 19-year-old soldier (Jay Rohloff) in an unidentified war, is about to be executed: he has raped and murdered 23 women. If you are looking for an evening of theater that is relaxing or comfortable, don't go see The Monument.

In the opening monologue, Stetko makes the audience listen in horror as he deliberately alternates between talking about the rapes, prison psychologists, and his girlfriend. Rohloff takes full advantage of the small theater-using facial expressions to convey his nervousness and anger. But for the rest of the 90-minute play, the audience spends more time being bombarded with obvious political and moral messages about the evils of war and taking orders than worrying about characters or getting involved in the plot.

The plot itself is entirely unbelievable-moments before Stetko is to be executed, a woman (Ramona Floyd) shows up and offers him "salvation" in exchange for doing exactly as she says. He accepts, and the next scene opens with her beating him viciously and chaining him outside, "because you don't know the difference between the truth and a lie," she says. As the play progresses, the woman-who we learn is named Mejra-abuses Stetko both verbally and physically while urging him to revisit why he committed the crimes and to understand what the consequences are.

Floyd plays the part of a 50-year-old woman clearly scarred by the war with a steady voice that rarely breaks out of a monotone, except in bouts of rage. She uses her facial expressions to convey a wider range of emotion, and often the monotone presents a chilling picture of a woman whose history remains mysterious until the end of the play. But Floyd would have been a more authentic character if she were given a wider range of emotions to work with. In the end, her character is unconvincing because she is too reliant on her extreme hate for Stetko. Rohloff is given a larger range of emotions well-suited for his outsize acting talent, and it is thrilling to watch him create a difficult, confused character.

The play succeeds when it is subtle. When director Beverly Brumm allows the characters moments of quiet, tentative tenderness, they become more interesting. However, such moments are both too short and too infrequent.

Ultimately, The Monument fails because it is overly extreme. It seems to try too hard to shock the audience with its violence, graphic descriptions, and the blase attitude with which Stetko approaches his crimes and the war. The play would have benefited from taking advantage of the intimate Clurman Theatre, rather than trying to become something that begs for a larger space and an audience that has yet to hear horror stories of real wars in the news.