Tragedy is nothing new. Clay Chapman’s “Volume of Smoke,” revisits the Richmond Theater fire of 1811 that killed more than 100 men, women and children, and begs the question: How do people cope with tragedy?
The play unfolds as a series of short skits woven together by the common thread of human loss. Stringing together 24 individual accounts, the play explores how humans respond to disaster.
A heroic blacksmith, whose pregnant aunt had been pushed from a slave ship, recalls catching women as they leapt from the theater’s windows. A mother recounts rummaging the crowd outside the theater for her lost daughter.
In the wake of the 1811 fire, a number of Richmonders condemned the theater as Satan’s playground and erected a church on its ruins and on ashes of the dead.
While the play finds its fodder in a tragedy that occurred almost two centuries ago, Chapman uses the apt theme of human suffering to evoke emotions of recent catastrophes in American history and relate the fire to the audience. In the playbill Isaac Butler, the play’s director, references his memories in New York on Sept. 11. Through poignant and emotional performances, the actors convey the human suffering caused by both tragedies.
The “Volume of Smoke” set is simple. Several wooden chairs, suitcases and books lay mangled, heaped against the black backdrop. The set’s modesty, however, underscores the brilliant performances of the six-ensemble cast.
The talented actors challenge audience members to suspend their reality for almost 80 minutes and believe that crumpled sheets of paper are fallen pigeons with burning wings and wooden chairs being knocked over are the sounds of people jumping to their deaths to escape the fire. Facilitating the audience’s suspension of reality, the costumes, colorless and drab, reflect the attire of the 1800’s.
What makes this play interesting is the intimacy the small theater in the Firehouse Theater Project Inc. provides, erasing the line between stage and seating.
Using all corners of the theatre as their stage, the actors shout lines from the audience and off-stage. In one skit, an actor positioned in the audience, presumably in a chair, addresses Richmond Theater’s old, squeaky, uncomfortable seats. Ironically, The Firehouse Theater Project Inc.’s seats share the same squeaky discomfort.
On the surface, the play’s central event seems insipid, irrelevant even. After all, the fire did occur almost 200 years ago. However, at the end of the play we learn the infinite and extensive reach tragedy commands over mankind
The play finds its strength in its cast, composed of Justin Dray – a VCU alumnus, Terry Menefee Gau, Stephanie Kelley, Jen Meharg Stephen Ryan and Foster Solomon.
With so many stories and only six actors to tell them, the plot sometimes becomes confusing to follow as scenes transition with no breaks in between. While the sometime-dimmed lighting and lulls in the script provide moments to doze off, the actors breathe life into their roles, delivering witty lines, producing a few laughs and awakening the audience. Chapman chips at Richmond’s historic gold mine in “Volume of Smoke,” revealing the unparalleled power of tragedy.
“Volume of Smoke” plays through March 19 at the Firehouse Theater Project Inc. For show times and ticket information call (804) 355-2001.