We’ve all heard someone say “I try to live my life with no regrets.”
But the truth is, every day, most of us imagine what it’d be like to have lived one moment differently. Choices we could have made to redefine the moment, and where and who we are today because of it.
Moments with family, school or academics, or, more often than not, the what-might-have-been’s of romance. The girl or guy that we could’ve, would’ve, (maybe) should’ve been with, if only.
Ed Monk’s 2009 play Variations on a Theme, which came to Venice High for three evenings December 4, 5, and 6, does just that with a relationship at a crossroads. Nick and Meg, two high school sweethearts, got into a fight last night. Today, Meg is leaving for college in Chicago, and Nick isn’t.
What follows is a 25 minute whirlwind against the backdrop of a blank canvas; the white-tiled walls of a train station. With us till the end is a frazzled Nick, who runs out from stage left and acts as the audience’s avatar. He reacts with bliss, dismay, and horror as nine versions of this pivotal moment in his life play out in his mind, before we see what we can only guess as the actual outcome (Variations is one big hypothetical, so everything is up to interpretation).
The way these train stop encounters play out run the gamut of relationship faceoffs. They begin with a cordial breakup but devolve into a series of more bombastic confrontations. A light and tender making up, before the inevitable goodbye. A shouting match that leads to punches. A tearful realization of incompatibility. It’s a strength of the show that each setpiece feels like a one-act play in and of itself, with a beginning, middle, and end.
That they come off as so condensed is no mistake, by necessity as much as choice. Indeed, Variations’ journey to the stage is a story of survival and a testament to the perseverance of the VHS Playmakers, against all odds.
Following a period of hiatus for the theater program, Mina Maderi, a seasoned actor and director, was tapped to lead as Venice’s new drama teacher.
“Probably the biggest surprise for me was how eager the theater program is here at Venice,” Maderi said, whose appointment in September gave the drama department just three months to put together a winter performance.
New protocols and scheduling were some of the challenges Variations faced leading up to opening night. Building the production involved “finding what’s already in place and putting your own spin on it,” she said. This was in no small part thanks to the cast and crew, veteran Venice thespians, and new faces alike.
The ensemble cast of Nicks and Megs (as well as a few supporting characters) provide a patchwork of great performances, tiles in a tapestry of strong renditions of the two lovers. Suffice it to say, there are memorable performances that linger in the mind and soul long after curtains close.
You couldn’t leave the Grant Francis Auditorium without remembering sophomore Arjun Nayar’s apologetic but suave Nick 1 righting his wrongs with sophomore Parker Weene’s no-nonsense Meg 1, however much they both know it’s done. Or sophomore Rylee Goldstein’s contrasting performance as Nick 3, desperate and beggarly, on his knees pleading for a second chance with sophomore Elizabeth Beemer’s Meg 3, who exclaims that “it’s over” in a passionate monologue.
Or lest we forget, our Nick 0, junior Atlas Gerson. The never-speaking but ever-listening protagonist. Watching, reacting, and then having his own train station moment. Serving as a connective tissue is a pack of cherry Twizzlers, a motif that represents the little common ground there is between the vastly different outcomes on the railway platform.
It’s been said that love is felt most when it’s leaving. So goes with Nick and Meg at the train station, a crossroads itself. Tracks from across the country converge there, at that spot, just to shoot off into every different direction again.
When Nick 0 finally gets the chance to live his variation, he chokes up and loses Meg at the turnstiles, leaving the now beaten-down pack of Twizzlers on a bench and sulking off in defeat. But Meg 0, senior Diamond Nerio, comes running back to get her purse. By then, Nick has long left, and the platform is empty. All that remains is a packet of Twizzlers.
In my own case, I didn’t know how to react when Variations on a Theme ended, hardly 30 minutes after the curtains had opened. But as the performers took their curtain call and the audience broke out into a thundering ovation, it took a parent ahead of me to articulate my thoughts.
Clapping in disbelief, he simply said, “That was, like, amazing! Can we do it again?” Encore, in other words. I second that.
