“I picked this show ultimately because I didn’t understand it and I wanted to,” said Skyler Matthias, a senior theater arts major at the University of Iowa. “Every time we go through it, there is another thing to pick up.”
On Friday and Saturday, Company Carolina will perform “Tender Napalm” in partnership with the University of Iowa’s Lightswitch Theater Company.
The actors in this piece are Matthias and sophomore University of Iowa theater arts major Aimee Townsend, though the title of “actor” means little to them as they see the audience as a part of the show.
“We are allowing the audience to create their own experience,” Matthias said. “We allow the audience to create as much as the actor. We want them as much involved as we are.”
UNC junior Kate Jones, who serves as the producer for the show, said the show is a nice break for typical audiences.
“Audiences come in and they’re allowed to stand, allowed to sit, or they can roll around on the floor,” she said.
The original play follows two people on their journeys through loss and love while struggling to live together as well as apart. It highlights the allure of togetherness through poetry and visuals, and Jones said they hope the show provokes audience engagement.
Matthias said getting to explore the script was his favorite part of this experience, because Ridley’s work tries to explain the unexplainable throughout the storyline.
