{"id":325,"date":"2025-05-06T17:31:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T17:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caira.dcreate.domains\/?page_id=325"},"modified":"2025-05-08T13:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T13:24:12","slug":"campus-commentary-the-outsider","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/caira.dcreate.domains\/?page_id=325","title":{"rendered":"Campus Commentary: The Outsider"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It is April 5th, 2025 at the Cunningham black box theater. Upon entering, my initial interpretation was that the set presented itself very literally. The space was decorated by using inspiration for a Governor’s office, it was well furnished and the walls were intentionally filled, creating an open but sterile environment. On the right wall is a large portrait of former Governor Larry Clarke; this striking portrait paints him as a major politician and was my first introduction to The Outsider,<\/em> a play written by Paule Slade Smith.\u00a0

This Outsider was performed as a political commentary layered between humor and comedy. The story is presented to us by new Lieutenant Governor Ned Newly, his Chief Advisor Dave Riley, and Ned\u2019s soon to be political advisor Martha Vance. Ned Newly suddenly replaces the previous governor and is tasked with keeping everything afloat. Ned is a nervous and awkward man, who doesn\u2019t fit the old money or strong patriotic aesthetic, but can do his job very well. Dave is constantly pushing Ned to try and make more appearances on T.V, especially after freezing on national television during his swearing in ceremony. Ned\u2019s performance caught the eye of Martha Vance, who tells Ned that \u201c I don’t need you to speak, I just need you to be real.\u201d What does it mean to be real when politics is a performative task? Martha also pushes for a second candidate Louise Peakes who is dense and ignorant about the government to run for Lieutenant Governor because Martha believes Louise is \u201creal.\u201d Martha makes Dave and Ned question the role of the government and if it’s the responsibility of the government to not promote politicians they know aren\u2019t good for the people, and whether that is undemocratic?\u00a0

Ned Newly is not a bad Governor, he is just a bad politician. He lacks the confidence and look that his predecessor possessed. Ned was the brains behind the operations, which is shown by how passionate he is about rewriting the yearly budget to maintain quality education. He knows what the government is supposed to do, in contrast to Larry Clarke who had no idea and still won because of the way he presented himself. So, Ned is constantly questioning what is being \u201creal” and whether that means being himself or not. Through farce Smith presents Martha\u2019s idea of realness and transparency, and yet it still seems like Ned is unfulfilled with his choices. Over the course of the show we see Ned realize that him acting like \u201cjust a guy\u201d who became Governor isn\u2019t an accurate portrayal of who he is and shouldn\u2019t be what the American populace is ok with letting into office. This forced him to present himself as he truly is and made me realize as a voter, that if we elected someone who was as knowledgeable about the function of the government as an average citizen we wouldn\u2019t be able to carry out normal processes, like paving the streets or government funded programs.\u00a0

Another idea that presents itself towards the end of the play is, what is the government? A reporter named Rachel Parson and her cameraman A.C Petersen come to interview Ned and Louise under the pretense that they can\u2019t ask any important questions, only ones that make their interviewees look upstanding. This leads to a private conversation between Ned and A.C where A.C explains to him he doesn\u2019t understand the function of government because it exists in a world far different from the reality he lives in. Besides the commentary happening in this scene, the choices of Ned and A.C to share this intimate moment together as an official and an everyday person was effective. It is then that he realizes that people may not understand the government because it presents itself as politics. After this conversation he competently explains on national television against the advice of Martha, what the government is supposed to do if done correctly. The basis of his argument was that the government was an agreement that people supported because it’s a collection of people who are supposed to help with tasks that a single person alone couldn\u2019t fulfill. Smith leaned very heavily on the social contract in order to explain what Ned was trying to portray.

Overall, I was impressed by this version of The Outsiders and for the first time left a Davidson show feeling that I took a greater message that is applicable to the real world. At Davidson I have only seen shows so far that don\u2019t have the undertones of social or political commentary. The exploration done by Smith to paint political questions in a satirical light was successful and delivered his message very well. I wish Smith had explored the idea of being \u201cdemocratic.\u201d There is a point where David argues that it was the responsibility of the instated representatives to back or present reliable candidates. To this Martha called it undemocratic to even consider limiting the choices people have because they don\u2019t feel like they are the \u201cright\u201d person. She argues that it’s the people’s choice to choose their candidate. What interests me the most is the inflated idea that people have of democracy and its relation to the American identity. There are many safeguards in the government to prevent people from making poor electoral choices, but I think today these safeguards, like the electoral college, are actually working against the will of the people. So then how democratic is our democracy?\u00a0
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It is April 5th, 2025 at the Cunningham black box theater. Upon entering, my initial interpretation was that the set presented itself very literally. The space was decorated by using inspiration for a Governor’s office, it was well furnished and the walls were intentionally filled, creating an open but sterile environment. On the right wall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-325","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caira.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caira.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caira.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caira.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caira.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/caira.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450,"href":"https:\/\/caira.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325\/revisions\/450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caira.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}