RLT Best Of: Act II

Hannah Buhr

“Progress begets authoritarianism. Authoritarianism begets persecution. Persecution begets revolution. Revolution begets death. Death begets God’s One True Question,” began Mr. Sasse. “Think about this as you watch.” And the room went dark.

This past weekend was the debut of one of the final RLT shows: RLT Drama Best. The drama, having three showings, one on May 12th and two on the 13th, centered around skits that had previously been performed by the RLT players.

Different from the usual format of unconnected skits, Act Two of the RLT Best was a one-act play. Mr. Sasse, wanting to incorporate certain skits into the program of the RLT Drama Best show, found a way to weave some of the RLT players’ previous skits and some new skits together into a creative and enlightening play.

Two of the skits that Mr. Sasse wished to restage were about political persecution and oppression. Thus, another old skit was added, three other skits were written, and a beautiful play was born: highlighting first the dangers of progress, and then, the perhaps inevitable mayhem that follows.

The one act play raised some very interesting questions, and certainly evoked emotion in the audience. One interesting point that the play raised was the idea of political correctness. We live in an age where political correctness is highly valued, almost required. People are expected to work very hard to be sympathetic to everyone around them; people are expected to never offend.

But the multiple scenes featuring the idea of Safe Spaces at a university, where people could go to spend time if they had not been sufficiently politically correct or had offended someone, lead the audience to question society's value of political correctness. As seen in the play, the universities’ value of political correctness lead to the deaths of two university students. Thus, we are led to ask ourselves if the political correctness in our larger society is safe and productive.

Furthermore, this play presented intense ideas about death. In the play, multiple characters, both good and bad, died for different reasons; some because they deserved death, others died as martyrs. After death, multiple scenarios were presented, and even God made an appearance at the play. This theme lead listeners to question: What happens after death? And what do I need to do to get into heaven?

All in all, in the midst of the one-act play featuring the work of many actors and a few writers, Dalat was lead to see, as Mr. Sasse said, that high school drama isn't just a photoshoot for parents, but high school dramas can also carry deep and intense meanings. As Inha Kim, one of the actors, so aptly said about the play, “it was more relevant than most people would be willing to credit it.” 

In fact, its relevance, even in our Dalat community, is alarming.