'Two Rooms' at Covenant College relevant in a post-9/11 world

photo A scent from "Two Rooms."

IF YOU GOWhat: "Two Rooms"When: 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22, and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23Where: Sanderson Hall auditorium, Covenant College, 14049 Scenic Highway, Lookout Mountain, Ga.Admission: $7 adults, $5 students and seniorsPhone: 706-419-1051Email: boxoffice@covenant.edu

Playwright Lee Blessing's study of Middle Eastern terror is the focus of the current production of the Covenant College Theatre Department. "Two Rooms" ends its run this weekend, with two shows remaining.

Blessing, best known for his Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-nominated play "A Walk in the Woods," wrote "Two Rooms" in 1988, but the production feels remarkably relevant in a post-9/11 world, according to professor Camille Hallstrom, who is directing the drama.

The plot centers on an American University professor kidnapped and held hostage in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war of the 1980s and his wife back home in America waiting for his release. The emotional tensions and struggles of the play come as she tries to determine what is truth, what is spin, what is genuine compassion and what is manipulation coming from the State Department employee assigned to her case and from a reporter eager to get her to speak out about the situation.

The production uses only four actors, so character and relational development are central to the play, says Hallstrom.

Blessing's "quality of insight into human relationships, depth and complexity of characterization will give the audience a moving and insightful meditation on life, love, war and politics," she says.

"And it gives the actors truly challenging and stretching roles to play."

The cast consists of three seniors -- David Anthony, Anne Patterson and Peter Upton -- as well as freshman Anna Dove in her Covenant debut.

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