Issue date: 4/30/09 Section: Scene

Media Credit: Brian Miller Senior CJ Krueger as "Brian" and junior Charlene Lucht as "Beverly" act out a scene from their upcoming performance of "The Shadow Box."

Three cabins located on the grounds of a large hospital become the setting for the final days of three terminally ill patients in an example of early hospice care. But even though the patients may be terminal, junior Charlene Lucht, who portrays Beverly, the ex-wife of one of the patients, said that isn't what the play is about.

"I think what (Professor Richard Nimke) said, which was a really good thing that struck me … the play is more about life and living than it is about dying."

"The Shadowbox," will open at 7 p.m. this evening in Kjer Theatre.

Before its debut this year at UW-Eau Claire, "The Shadowbox" earned critical acclaim and a Tony in 1977 for Best Play and a Pulitzer Prize in the same year for Drama, according to a university press release.

Set in the '70s, the play covers the lives of three terminally ill hospice patients, their families and their experiences with the process of mortality, said associate professor of theatre arts and director Richard Nimke.

Despite the background of impending mortality, the play isn't morbid.

"The play is a touching play, but at times it's very funny," Nimke said. "I always think, sometimes, the funniest things happen in real life during our most tragic moments."

Nimke said the characters throw sarcastic humor and wit into the dialogue to deal with the grieving and the loss.

One of the premises behind the play, Nimke said, is the book written by Elisabeth Kubler Ross titled "On Death and Dying," which explores the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

In "The Shadowbox," each of the three families shows different ways of addressing those stages in different parts of life.

Other than that, Nimke added that the play deals with the universality of the characters.

"I think that there's a sense of showing diverse people but the commonality of experience," Nimke said. "Because of it, it makes it more accessible to the audience.

Continued...

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