All Go Signs for ‘Stop Kiss’

“Do you remember your first kiss?” This seemingly-simple question sat at the center of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club’s production of “Stop Kiss,” originally a 1998 American play written by Diana Son. The play, which ran from Sept. 22 to Sept. 24 at the Loeb Ex, answered this question through the lens of the budding relationship between Callie and Sara was additionally interspersed with various scenes following the violent assault after their titular first kiss. As a whole, director Casey J. Durant ’18 presented a passionate retelling of this story due largely to impressive acting, although it suffered from certain sound and lighting choices that detracted from the overall storyline.

“Stop Kiss” unravels two stories at once, alternating scenes that occur before the vicious attack and after. The former story is innocent enough: Callie (Peryn Reeves-Darby ’18) and Sara (Victoria Brancazio) begin to develop feelings for each other in the closed-off setting of Callie’s apartment, and the two share laughs, takeout food, and their experiences. The latter carries a much darker tone. The aftermath of the assault deals with Sara being in a coma, a biased interrogation of Callie by the homophobic Detective Cole (Scott Kall ’20), and the strained hospital visits by both Sara’s ex-boyfriend Peter (also played by Kall) and Callie herself. The dichotomy of these narratives is striking, and as a result, a successful framing of the show presents a rollercoaster of emotions, of highs and lows.

While the cast was generally successful, the star of the show was, without a doubt, Reeves-Darby. Her depiction of Callie was incredibly realistic, and she showed off her skills with a range of emotions, from her awkwardness and playfulness with Brancazio to her utter despondency at Sara’s hospital bed. The performances from the rest of the cast were similarly effective: Robert Rush ’18—who played George, Callie’s close friend—brought a strong comedic presence, while Brancazio impressed with a convincingly awkward Sara that turned endearing. The chemistry between the characters became more compelling as the play went on: Callie and Sara’s relationship developed naturally, bringing the audience along for the ride. The final scene, in which they shared their first kiss, was painfully bittersweet, with the knowledge that the assault would come moments after.

The experimental seating arrangement, in which audience members needed to walk through the set to get to their seats, further set the mood. The cast often used the audience as an invisible mirror, highlighting the confined nature of the show and also allowing the play to be more introspective to the characters themselves. In her director’s note, Durant wrote that she wished to give “voice to these conflicting, complex experiences,” and the design of the show managed to provide a literal reflection for these intricate characters of the BGLTQ community. The music used during transitions between scenes also reflected the mood of the previous scenes: an upbeat, jaunty song after Callie and Sara shared a playful experience; an ethereal, slow set of notes intermittent with a heartbeat tone after the audience saw Sara in a coma. In this way, “Stop Kiss” was unguarded and vulnerable, even naked, allowing its onlookers to personally connect to the lives being played out on stage.

However, several of Durant’s decisions also diminished the play’s success. Most notably, the interrogation scenes with Kall appeared stilted and unrealistic. In part, this was due to an important choice: Using blue and yellow lights over a hotter red rendered these scenes too visually similar to the lighting in Callie’s apartment. As a result, there was no noticeable tone shift between the two scenes. And while Kall did well in portraying Sara’s ex, Peter, his performance as an interrogator was less natural. There was gravity in the actors’ lines, but it was mismatched with an insincere setting and tone. Furthermore, the music used between transitions did little to mark the passage between the past and the future, as the music was awkwardly cut off whenever the next scene started, leading to an irregular progression of the storyline.