Lecturers and lovers

KOLT Run Creations’ newest production instantly transports you back to that quirky community college class. Literally. This odd yet compelling 90-minute play is set in a classroom complete with blackboard and lectern, with the audience becoming the students and being addressed by two William Blake poetry professors.

In the wrong hands, There is a Happiness That Morning Is, by playwright Mickle Maher, could easily derail. It’s the story of two college lecturers, one campus lawn, one public indiscretion caught on one video that goes viral and one pretty pissed-off dean. And the most challenging aspect: the dialogue is performed Blake-style in romantic and passionate rhyming couplets. But in the masterful hands of KOLT’s steady direction under Patrick Murphy and with impressive, flawless performances by the three-member cast, this clever, daring play presented in poetic prose is a pure theatrical treat.

Blake is central in There is a Happiness—not only is his poetry celebrated, but also his political, sexual and social viewpoints, which were considered a bit scandalous in his time but fit into this plot quite nicely. In a nutshell, the play is presented through two lectures by stereotypical professors who are easily recognizable. The morning session is led by Bernard Barrow (Greg Hanson), the typical laid-back groovy-dude lecturer, and the afternoon session is led by Elle Parker (Kelley Ogden), the typical intensely passionate poetry lover.

The two lecturers (and lovers) are caught in a public display of lust, and in order to keep their jobs, they are commanded by the dean (Greg Parker) to apologize to the students in each of their classrooms. We then learn the history and story of the couple, along with their differing memories and views of both the sexual encounter and the demand for apology.

The dialogue is Shakespeare-like; it could’ve been cumbersome and distracting if not delivered by capable and captivating actors. But as usual, the KOLT acting and directing team is pretty remarkable, and this production marks the blessed return of KOLT, which took a year absence from the theater scene in 2014. It’s an excused absence after watching the two main actors, Hanson and Ogden, (along with a brief appearance by Parker) completely and convincingly capture the quirky antics of Blake-influenced lecturers and lovers.