Lizzie Martinez

Suspense. Intrigue. Prejudice. Murder. Small towns. Corruption. Cheese. It’s all there in Linfield theater’s latest production, “Book of Days,” by noted American playwright Lanford Wilson. Opening night is May 7, and tickets are discounted to $5 for students and faculty and staff.
The ensemble cast features 12 students in major roles and showcases the design department’s innovative set and the talents of Visiting Director Ellyn Gersh Lerner.
“Book of Days” chronicles in a journal-like fashion the series of events that occur in a small town in southern Missouri, where life revolves around the cheese plant, the fundamentalist church and the community theater.
“The characters are immediately recognizable, but as the story evolves they become less and less predictable,” Lerner said.
As the story progresses, the town practices for its latest performance, a production of Joan of Arc. Ruth Hoch, the cheese plant
owner’s bookkeeper, takes on the character of Joan of Arc in both a literal and symbolic sense.
The play progresses in a series of short scenes, some overlapping. Approximately 60 scenes are presented to the audience, and many scenes jump to the middle of a story or conversation. This unconventional storyline leads the audience into the heart of the mystery at hand and allows it to follow the action.
However, the play is much more than an enigma. Like many of Wilson’s plays, it is a complex look at the interactions in a small town as the citizens examine ideas of justice, prejudice and truth.
“I like the play overall because it’s really complex yet truthful to a small town,” actress and prop master junior Jillian Haig said. “People are like these people. These characters really exist somewhere.”
The first half of the play leads up to a giant cliffhanger. The final scene is also phenomenal, Haig said, as pieces of the set move and the story is brought to its conclusion.
“You have to stay for the second half,” Haig said.
In the second half, the characters become more entwined in the values that playwright Wilson pushes the audience to consider.
“[They’re] trying to cope with a bunch of changes that are ambiguous,” senior actor Matt Cantelon said.
Lerner agrees that is what makes the play so entertaining.
“The play deals with the idea of choice — how we behave,” Lerner said. “How do we act when we know something or when we witness something?”
Cantelon plays Lanhock, the cheese plant manager. This is Cantelon’s 12th and final production at Linfield, and his seventh as an actor.
“It’s a big challenge in the scope of it,” Cantelon said. “It’s a huge number of scenes and an ensemble cast.”
Despite the obstacles, Cantelon said the play has been exciting to work on, especially as his final work at Linfield.
“It’s fulfilling because I can see how far I’ve come,” Cantelon said.
As for working with Lerner, Cantelon and Haig noted the director’s skill in pushing the students to engage more in their characters.
“[Lerner’s] emphasis is to go deeper into our characters than we have before, and that’s really going to come through with our performers,” Haig said. “It’s been a fun and intense journey.”
The play runs for two weekends, May 7-10 and 14-16. On Friday and Saturday nights, the performance begins at 8 p.m., and tickets are $9 full price and $7 for students, seniors, Linfield faculty and staff. On May 10, Mother’s Day, the play will run at 2 p.m. and tickets are $5 for mothers.