No matter what you thought of this year’s World Cup, The Bounds, Stewart Pringle’s genre-bending dark comedy, is here to remind you that things could have been much worse.
Making its North American premiere in the Annie Russell Theatre at Rollins College, the play is set in Northern England in 1553, when football matches could last for days, the playing field was miles long and there was more than a passing chance of bloodshed before the whole thing was over.
A red card doesn’t seem so tragic now, does it? Pringle focuses his story on two peasants who have been conscripted to play defender but, since all the action is taking place far beyond the horizon, they have plenty of time to chew the fat.
The script has been compared to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, with the crucial distinction that, well, stuff happens in The Bounds. Some pretty dramatic stuff, too, as critics have noted that the story gradually shifts from virtual comedy to something approaching folk horror.
The Bounds debuted two years ago at the Live Theatre in Newcastle, then moved a month later to London’s Royal Court Theatre. Now, under the direction of Tony Morton, a visiting assistant professor in the school’s theater department, it’s opening the 94th season of the venerable Annie.
“It’s been a long time since I read a play and gasped aloud,” says Morton. “The Bounds is a dark-comical, gothic folktale with a dash of horror and sci-fi. And the ending is unlike any other play I’ve seen or read.”
Audiences, he adds, should expect more than just a story about football: “These characters are barely holding on—they’re one missed day of work or one bad crop away from catastrophe. This play explores how decisions made by the king or the church play out for the impoverished and the powerless.”
Morton adds that he won’t be at all surprised if ticketholders happen to detect analogies to modern times. The cast will be made up of four Rollins students who’ll play their roles on a suitably creepy set—rendered by scenic designer Lisa Cody-Rapport—that’s meant to evoke a mucky, boggy countryside.
Performances are on Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m., on Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday at 4 p.m. The Saturday matinee will offer an audio description for the visually impaired, while the Saturday evening performance will feature an interpretation in American Sign Language.
Audience advisories include “vulgar language, violence (including gun violence), death and references to religious discrimination and violence against women” as well as “loud and sudden noises, screams, fog and flashing lights.” Yep, that medieval soccer was one vicious game, all right.
The Annie Russell Theatre is located at 1000 Holt Avenue, Winter Park, on the campus of Rollins College. For more information, call or visit the website.
