By Amanda Tennant, staff writer
Throughout February, the KUSD Theatre Arts delivered a highly realistic, well acted performance of Front by Robert Caisley at Indian Trail High School & Academy.
The play is set during World War 2 London and tells the story of the women and children living there and the struggles they had to face during the war. The lead actors in this production were Orion Zorilla as Frank and Fiona Dyer as Judith, a husband and wife separated by the war.
The stagecraft created by Indian Trail High School and Academy’s stagecraft classes was incredibly convincing with rubble and smashed furniture scattered throughout the stage. The setting really took the audience 70 years into the past to give them a glimpse inside war-torn London.
The acting was on point as well. Throughout the play, all the actors were able to evoke intense emotions such as empathy and fear. This was especially shown through Judith when she didn’t know if her husband was dead or alive. Yet, the actors proved they could also be lighthearted and humorous with scenes like the Home- Department soldiers trying to teach civilians how to put out a fire.
My favorite scene of this play was when Gabe Simmons’s character Angie was deciding whether or not to keep her baby and herself after learning the death of her father. Gabe played her character in a way that displayed the desperation and confusion of a young woman with no other place to go in such a devastated environment like war-torn London.
The most interesting fact of this play is that it tells another side of war. It wasn’t set on the frontlines, but instead at home where citizens still have to face the chaos, moral dilemmas, and sacrifice of losing a loved one during a war. This play shows that the burden of war is carried by everyone, but in different ways, and sometimes more challenging, than of those on the front lines.
Overall, Front was well acted and gave the audience a different perspective of war.