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The Coterie Theatre begins it season with The Outsiders, the first production in the Preteen/Young Adult Series. Directed by Jeff Church, the cast and crew reinvent this coming-of-age modern classic that explores fear, anguish, dreams, and inequality.

S.E. Hinton wrote the novel The Outsiders while a teenager, trying to make sense of the turmoil and injustice around her. In this adaption by Christopher Sergel, many details are streamlined, with rather long narratives, to accommodate the audience and time constraints.

Though the story is set in a distinctive time and place (Oklahoma 1965), the themes and message are timelessly repeated in literature and reality. This novel is a staple of many middle school curricula, despite that it was (and is) deemed controversial because of its themes of juvenile delinquency and violence. The story is fairly psychological and the characters question themselves and their situations.

The Outsiders tells the story of the Greasers, a gang of boys from the wrong side of the tracks who are terrorized by the rival Socs, rich kids who torment the young men for kicks. Ponyboy is the youngest member. He’s jumped by some Socs coming home from a movie; his friend Johnny had been jumped and still bears scars, both emotionally and physically. Varying factors lead to an escalation of gang violence, with Johnny and Pony running from the law after Johnny accidently kills a rival member. While on the lam, they rescue school children from a burning church, becoming heroes. Unfortunately, being heroes doesn’t solve either their problems or the social unbalance that permeates the story.

This is a large cast for the Coterie and the performances were solid across the board. Skyy Moore plays Ponyboy with a not-so-innocent naivety and more than a hint of youthful rebellion. He serves to set the scene and fill in the background, though the monologues ran a little long. Brian Gehrlein gives an excellent performance as Johnny, fearful and damaged.  

The rest of the gang displays various levels and different versions of “tough.” Two-Bit (Matthew Leonard) is a charming rouge with an awkward hulking gait. Dallas (Tosin Morohunfola) is scarily defiant of rules and order, relishing dysfunction and acting out in anger. Pony’s brothers, Darrel (Jeff Smith) and Sodapop (Doogan Brown), are hard-working-but-going-nowhere youths, investing their hopes in Ponyboy, when good looks and athleticism have failed them. Soda’s girlfriend Sandy (Meredith Wolfe) represents female issues in the male-driven story (though not fully developed in this production).

The Socs are played with a menace by Zachary Andrews, Scott Swayze, and Kyle Drake. Cherry (Wilson Vance) is the only person who connects with Pony, who also questions the social system, unlike Marcia (Laura Sudduth) who accepts her privileges willingly. Cathy Wood and Hughston Walkinshaw play the adults in the story, authority figures who are notably absent during most of the action.

The inventive set by Jordan Janota of sliding door panels in the back of a graffiti-covered billboard provided a versatile yet distinctive space. Video projections added another layer, changing the backdrop from movie screen to burning building to hospital to sunset. Dramatic spotlighting by Art Kent heightened the tension of fight scenes. Ron McGee’s props were a contrast of worn and dirty wood boxes, weapons steeped with potential violence, and the surreal pneumatic lung.

The incidental music was performed by Brodie Rush on guitar, bass, and bass drum. His improvisational accompaniment vacillated between pop melodies and atmospheric picking, with a wonderfully aggressive drum beat during the fight scene, well-choreographed by Matt Rapport.

The audience for this show was a rambunctious cadre of middle-school students. Most of them seemed familiar with the story, having read it in class, but they were drawn in yet again, bopping to the music. They cheered for the good guys and jumped at the explosive bursts of anger that punctuated this production. Nervous giggling happened, too, when the action came off the stage. But a heartfelt ovation full of whooping signaled their approval and excitement for the performance.

REVIEW
Coterie Theater
The Outsiders
Runs through October 14, 2011. (Reviewed Tuesday, September 20)
First floor of the Crown Center Mall
2450 Grand Boulevard, Kansas City, MO
For tickets, information, and showtimes: call 816-474-6552 or visit www.coterietheatre.org.

 Top Photo: Ponyboy (Skyy Moore) with Cherry (Wilson Vance) in The Outsiders (Photo courtesy of the Coterie Theatre)

By Libby Hanssen

Traditional and New Classical, Theatre Contributor

Libby Hanssen holds degrees from University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) and Ball State University (B.M.) in trombone performance and also studied music education at Indiana University. She has studied trombone with Carl Lenthe, JoDee Davis, John Seidel, John Huntoon and Denis Wick, and music education with Brent Gault, Estelle Jorgensen and Katherine Strand.

While at IU, she taught classes in general music, focusing on listening skills and music fundamentals through practical music usage and exploring new sound constructions. During the course of her studies at UMKC, she performed with many ensembles, including the Conservatory Orchestra and Musica Nova. She has also performed with the Kansas City Puccini Festival, the People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, the New Jazz Order, the Indiana Wind Symphony and the Muncie Symphony Orchestra.

In 2010, she was a fellow (one of 23 journalists selected from across the US) for the seventh annual National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University’s Journalism School in New York City.

Most of her free time is spent with her three boys (son, dog and husband) and camera, exploring the many fine aspects of Kansas City living. She enjoys listening to KKFI - Kansas City Community Radio and KCUR - Kansas City's NPR station, visiting Kansas City's fine collection of museums and galleries, and scavenging in thrift and antique stores to add to her collection of toy instruments.

She writes for the joy of words and the process of constructing a story, maintaining the blog Proust Eats a Sandwich (www.prousteatsasandwich.wordpress.com). She is working on her first book: Murray Goes to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.