Review Of Madeira School's 'Up The Down Staircase'

FAIRFAX CITY, VA - From The Cappies: Erasers and Homer and Delinquents! Oh my! The Madeira School's production of Up The Down Staircase portrays the struggles of a budding educator when faced with an English class of indifferent inner-city kids, a lack of chairs, and nonsense regulations.

Based on a novel of the same title, Up The Down Staircase was on The New York Time's Best Seller list for 64 weeks starting in 1964. Its immense popularity led to a movie adaptation in 1967 starring Sandy Dennis before its eventual translation into a stage play.

The cast from Madeira was able to encapsulate the struggles the various teenagers faced and present it to the audience in a sympathetic yet relatable manner. The show's protagonist Miss Barrett (Alex Raposo) took the audience on a journey from insecurity and doubt to optimism and perseverance. She relentlessly tried to convince the student body and staff of resident bad-boy, Joe Ferone's (Katie King) potential and bright future. King portrayed the misfit with a recognizable, yet lovable rebel spirit.

Madeira, an all girl boarding school, not only faced the default challenge of learning how to justly inhabit a character but the additional obstacle of acting as the other gender. Many of the girls assigned to a male role not only successfully did so but showed mastery at it. Prabha Girish who played J.J. Mc Habe, the school's detention officer, took on a masculine aura by embodying a the physicality of one and a commanding tone. Lennie (Sydney Marenberg) and Jose (Olivia Lewis) were also standouts- taming the fine line between realism and a caricature of masculinity.

Just like a staircase is nothing without a destination, a show is nothing without strong tech. Both sound and set showed expertise in their respective areas. The otherwise vacant stage was filled with hanging windows; a brick wall, reminiscent to a staircase silhouette; and, of course, a lack of desks. Every element was intentionally designed to be symbolic and reflect an element from the show. Sound effects only enhanced the audience's experience-- chosen to intensify the mood of a scene or allow the (older) watchers to reminisce about the decade it was set, the 90's.

From an aerial perspective, the conflict seemed distant and un-relatable; an accurate presumption being that most people observing have never taught or have been involved in an inner city school system. Yet, The Madeira School brought the themes and topics of the show miles closer reminding everyone that there will always be relevance to extract in theatre.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Maxwell