One cannot imagine a play more timely than the semi-autobiographical No Child by Nilaja Sun. First performed (by the playwright) in 2006 at New York City’s Epic Theater Center, the play has lost none of its power. Thanks to a strong performance by Marti Gobel and tight direction by Mary MacDonald Kerr, this production by Next Act Theatre is a reminder to bureaucrats of what is lost when performing arts such as music, theater and dance are stripped from school curriculums.
This play strongly advocates for the arts as a way to capture and expand a child’s understanding of the world around them. Before that can happen, however, there are figurative mountains to climb.
In this one-woman play, actor Marti Gobel is faced with the challenge of bringing 16 characters to life. It is no easy task. Like a tightrope walker performing without a net, Gobel isn’t allowed any props or costume changes to switch characters. (Okay, her first character uses a mop.) Instead, Gobel must use her voice, body movements and facial expression to bring these characters to life.
Gobel spends most of her time as Ms. Sun, a temporarily out-of-work actor who takes an assignment as a visiting artist in a Bronx school. Her position is funded by a foundation. The 10th grade class she must teach to learn and perform a play is located in a tough neighborhood in the Bronx. The students in her room are considered the worst in school.
Ms. Sun has only six weeks to accomplish her goal. (It’s ironic that the playwright’s name, also Ms. Sun, might represent the illumination brought by this interloper to the children’s minds.)
The play begins not with Ms. Sun, but with Gobel appearing as an 80-year-old male school janitor. S/he and a floor mop make their way through the school. The aging custodian talks about how things have changed – and how they haven’t – over the many years the school has existed. “He” reminisces about the early days when the school was first built, and the years that followed. Over time, the school has gradually fallen into disrepair due to neglect and a lack of funds. The janitor becomes the play’s narrator, who appears from time to time to fill in the gaps of time between Ms. Sun’s visits to the classroom.
The funniest part of the play – and this is, without a doubt, a very funny play – happens in the classroom between Ms. Sun and her pupils. Gobel amazingly transforms herself into an array of students, ranging from a bratty, know-it-all girl to a shy Latino to the boy ringleader of the group. He rules the room with foul-mouthed curses and gestures that are similar to those seen in a rap video. Ms. Sun announces in her first appearance that the kids must verbally clean up their act, with no more talk of “mother------- and n------” while she’s in the room. The class, a mix of African-Americans and Latinos, murmurs their dislike for this bossy visiting teacher. And when she informs them they are now thespians, there is laughter around the room. One boy makes a comment about not wanting to be a “lesbian.”
The school’s regular classroom teacher, a reticent Asian woman, doubts that Ms. Sun will get any cooperation from the students. At first, she is right.
Miraculously, the play Ms. Sun has chosen, about a group of convicts in Australia, seems to eventually interest the kids. They start to identify with the play’s convicts. They see themselves as imprisoned by poverty and neglect, not to mention by the classroom itself. The play’s set cleverly reinforces this idea, with steel grates on some of the windows. In one window, a pane is missing, replaced by a piece of wood. There are also a few chairs, a chalkboard and a single piece of chalk – only the bare essentials.
The play takes us through the six weeks in which Ms. Sun must accomplish her goal. On opening night, Ms. Sun is amazed by how the students managed to memorize their parts – even a long monologue that she had to carefully coax out of the speaker. One student, who was told to babysit younger siblings at home on the night of the play, is seen racing to the school auditorium. He expresses sincere disappointment at missing the whole performance. Ms. Sun, who at one point was ready to walk away from the whole mess, is surprised and gratified to learn how much the play meant to these kids. It’s a masterful performance that teachers everywhere can undoubtedly identify with.
