Featured Image: Judy Dixon (Caroline) hands Allen Dumas (Anthony) a replica of a turtle. | (Photo Credit / Paul Pharris)

The UT Martin visual and theatre arts department presented a very unique and heartfelt production of a short play titled I and You, directed by Paris Whisnant on Nov. 14 and 15 in the William H. Snyder Little Theatre.

The drama was written by playwright Lauren Gunderson and consisted of a single 90-minute act, requiring only two actors and no set changes whatsoever. The whole set consisted of a teenage girl’s bedroom, with the usual furniture and some decorative collages on the walls.

Despite its seemingly simple setting, the play’s story took many shocking twists and turns throughout, which kept the audience guessing as to who the characters truly were and what led them to come together in that bedroom.

The play focused on Caroline, played by Judy Dixon, a senior theatre major from Collierville, Tennessee. During her senior year of high school, Caroline had to attend school homebound due to her illness, allowing her to detach further from her peers and leading to her depression.

Suddenly, basketball player Anthony, who is portrayed by senior theatre major Allen Dumas of Memphis, Tennessee, bolts into her room with a group project about the poetry collection, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

Even though she is hesitant at first, Caroline agrees to help Anthony finish the project as she reads the poem and decorates the board for their presentation. Since she rarely got to talk to anyone else, Caroline started opening up to Anthony about her personal struggles, whether it was her anxiety, her illness, her soon-to-be-estranged father and her aspiration to become a world-traveling photographer.

As he listens in, Anthony begins to see Caroline as a friend and shares some of his struggles and aspirations with her as well while they analyze Walt Whitman’s work and his various uses for the pronouns “I” and “you.”

When they complete the project, Anthony eventually reveals the shocking truth that he had died on the basketball court and that their whole friendship was a lucid dream she had while undergoing a liver transplant from his body, leaving Caroline alone to wake up and face the lonely world in which she had always suffered.

The production was most certainly a success due to the jaw-dropping performances by the sole leading actors. Their onstage chemistry was very convincing, as the two embodied the opposing sides of the high school social hierarchy.

Throughout the show, Dixon would act standoffish and depressed, which would contrast with Dumas’ carefree and energetic personality. This was the basis of many of the show’s most comedic scenes.

Whether they were debating Walt Whitman’s sexuality, educating one another about their music tastes or discussing their familial relationships, the two actors were able to make the audience roar with laughter with every awkward yet charming interaction.

They also reached a superb level of acting in the heartfelt scenes of the production. Dixon’s emotionally-charged outbursts were nothing short of convincing, as she was able to truly express her character’s mental and physical struggles and how having a real life was seemingly delayed indefinitely.

The final scene hit the hardest, where Dumas confessed that he was not truly there and quietly walked off stage after hugging Dixon, leaving her terrified and alone as she woke up to her mother’s voice to face the real world.

Both actors found the production to be a unique experience and were happy to perform in this final production together under the direction of their friend, Whisnant.

“We had fun. Like, we’re all friends, so we get to, you know, we’re honest with our criticism, too, so we just work on things and get better at it,” Dumas said. 

Dixon was happy to have taken part in this production, especially since it was a such unique play to end her time at UT Martin.

“I really enjoyed working on a two-person play because I’ve never done that before. It’s a lot of work that is put into it, and it’s just a different feel from musicals, which is what I’m used to. So it was a nice change,” she said.

Whisnant was grateful to direct the show as her final theatre project at UT Martin and has gotten plenty of good experience from the occasion.

“It has helped me conquer some challenges that I knew I would face knowing Judy and Allen as actors, that I would have to basically just conquer their different actor quirks and meld them together. Help them connect better with their character,” Whisnant said.

After having a full house opening night, I and You was a successful production that kept the audience guessing throughout. As of now, Whisnant plans to audition for the Southeast Theatre Conference (SETC), Dixon hopes to audition and get a role in regional theatre and Dumas is set to attend graduate school here at UT Martin.