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Stage Review: 'Outsiders' gives insider's view
Thursday, April 26, 2001 By Mary Elizabeth David
Opening last Friday on the anniversary of the carnage at Columbine, Prime Stage's "The Outsiders" is a timely exploration of teen-age gangs. Christopher Sergel's play is a faithful adaptation of the novel by S.E. Hinton, written in the '60s when she was a teen-ager.
Where: Hazlett Theater, North Side.
When: 8 p.m. through Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets: $8-$12. 412-394-3353.
The book was later made into a film in 1983.
Most of the boys in both the affluent Socs (for "Socials") and the economically disadvantaged Greasers (because of their Elvis hair) come from families that are unconcerned, dysfunctional or just nonexistent.
Sergel keeps the novel's first-person narrator, Ponyboy Curtis, at 14 the youngest member of the Greasers. As my assistant critic, fourth-grader Aleks, pointed out, events are seen from the point of view of the Greasers, who are, of course, the Outsiders.
Parallel to the tensions between the two gangs are the tensions within the Curtis family, although, as Aleks noted, family obviously means a lot. Their parents are dead, and 20-year-old Darry has given up a football scholarship to work to support the family. Ponyboy doesn't realize Darry's severity is motivated by love and concern.
Early in Act 2, there is a scene that is the thematic core of the play. Ponyboy and Johnny have taken refuge in an abandoned church after a murder. As they watch the sun rise, Ponyboy recites Frost's poem that begins "Nature's first green is gold" and ends, "Nothing gold can stay." This expresses their sense of vulnerability and the precariousness of life -- feelings they could not possibly have put into words. For them and for us, it puts the events of the play into perspective.
This is a fine production produced and directed by Wayne Brinda. Paula Gittie's set uses the whole Hazlett stage separated from the audience by a low chain-link fence. This generic urban wasteland allows the action to flow smoothly from the Curtises' living room to the park, the church and the site of the climactic clash. The costumes by John W. Cantrell are right out of a '60s high school yearbook.
The play demands high caliber ensemble acting and gets it. As Darry, Elias C. Varoutsas has presence, although occasionally he drops his voice too low in emotional scenes. He looks like a football player and is able to convey toughness and tenderness. Shawn Cooper's Soda Pop is funny and sensitive.
Pivotal is Ponyboy, whose monologues explain the past and form narrative links, and Trey Compton rises to the occasion, though he too occasionally forgets to project. His face and lithe body aptly express Ponyboy's dreamy, imaginative inner self and his gang persona.
There are three deaths -- one heart-wrenching and two violent. The church fire is terrifying, and the fights, choreographed by Shaun J. Rolly with technical assistance by members of Pittsburgh gangs, are brutal and mesmerized a troop of Brownie scouts seated in front of me. The violence is probably appropriate only for fourth-graders up.
Much that is positive emerges. The camaraderie among the Greasers is an extension of the Curtises' sense of family. Finally, in a scene not in the novel, Ponyboy finds a letter from Johnny affirming that "there is still good out there," and when he sits down to write the story we have just seen, there is a sense that he will find that good.
Mary Elizabeth David is a free-lance critic for the Post-Gazette.
"The Outsiders"
Where: Hazlett Theater, North Side.
When: 8 p.m. through Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets: $8-$12. 412-394-3353.
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