I won’t pretend I’ve been reading French existentialist literature for years and that I was at all familiar with Albert Camus’s L’Étranger when I walked into The Guild to see The Outsider, Thomas Morgan Jones’s adaptation of the novel for the stage. However, I will assert (with a pending Philosophy 101 credit on my transcript) that I really did like it.
Presented by Vagabond Productions and directed by Greg Doran, the play centers around Meursault (Ben Rayner), whose mother has recently died in a nursing home. It focuses on his struggle with the guilt of her death and his growing pessimism towards human existence.
Walking around like Hamlet in his funeral suit for most of the play, Rayner plays Meursault in a way in which the audience can feel both pity for his misery and frustration with his deadpan responses to the people around him. In the play, and especially in the beginning, there is very little dialogue and much of scenes’ emotional weight relies on Meursault’s physical reactions to other characters and situations. In a trance-like state for much of the play, Meursault’s calm and contemplative manner is underscored by anger and confusion and it is not until the final scene that we see all of the character’s burdens unleashed in a frighteningly realistic and cathartic performance by Rayner.
Throughout the play, Rayner is supported by the surrounding characters who act as foils to the serious and reflective Meursault. Notably, Marie, played by Kelsey Moore, as Meursault’s girlfriend is the antithesis of her boyfriend and is naïve, optimistic, and content with her reality. Another distinctive character is Meursault’s neighbor Raymond, played by Ian MacDonald, who not only portrays an irrational man who quickly befriends Meursault, bringing trouble with him, but provides comic relief from the seriousness of the play. Finally, there is the character Salamano played by Jon Deagle who frantically searches for his dog which he abused for most of play. Through the loss of his dog, Salamano highlights the inevitability of death, stating that there is “no cure for that.”
One of the play’s most moving scenes was at the end of Act One, when, after Raymond has been attacked on the beach by the family member’s of his mistress, Meursault is left alone with one of the injured men, played by Brian Ansems. With no dialogue, the scene uses musical cresendo, and Rayner and Ansem’s reactions to each other, to create an almost nauseating scene (in the most positive sense of the word). Later on, Meursault speaks of the heat of the day and the scorching sun, and during this scene the combination of music and the actors’ performances, made me feel like I had sun exhaustion.
As the director’s note in the program points out, the play doesn’t really answer any of the “big questions” about the reason for and the value of life. However, it gives us many questions concerning death, religion, condemnation, and a person’s value.
Presented by an extremely talented young group of actors and crew, The Outsider was an intense night of entertainment that left me thinking about it for days after it was over. I might even read L’Étranger over Christmas break.
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