Rogue Players presents ‘Beautiful Child’ at Chapel Hill Underground for one night only

Wrongdoing after wrongdoing will force audience members to question their ideas about morality and relationships tonight with Rogue Players’s production, “Beautiful Child.”

The play, which focuses on a dysfunctional couple dealing with their troubled middle-aged son, will premiere for one night only tonight at Chapel Hill Underground on East Rosemary Street.

When character Harry has an affair with a much younger mistress, his wife Nan is less than pleased. But things turn truly chaotic when their 30-year-old son, Isaac, comes back home to tell his parents that he has fallen in love — with his 8-year-old student.

Nicky Silver’s “Beautiful Child” marks the Rogue Players’s third production after last year’s “Titus Andronicus” and last semester’s “Pelleas et Melisande.”

Junior Kimberly Sikkel will make her directing debut with this production.

“The family’s concept of the world is entirely uprooted by their son coming home and telling them that he has fallen in love with his 8-year-old student,” Sikkel said.

“The play centers around them trying to understand why he doesn’t feel like he’s done anything wrong.”

Junior Madeline Hurley, the play’s producer, said the venue marked a transition for the Rogue Players, whose past backyard performances had become a staple of their shows.

“Once we figured out that the venue was a possibility, we were really excited that we could use something other than a backyard for the first time,” Hurley said.

“We wanted to move on to bigger and different things as we were evolving as a group.”

Securing the new venue also allowed the cast to use different forms of media to present the play.

Senior Andrew Jones has mostly been in charge of the technical design of the play. He has been working with senior Ben Elling, who plays Isaac, to create projections for the play. These projections feature images that will be shown on stage throughout the production.

Seniors Jeff Hymes and Cameron Cook composed an entirely original score for the production, which will complement the actions on stage as they unfold before the audience.

Sikkel said she believes that media plays an important role in bringing the audience into a performance.

“We truly believe that the audience is part of a play,” she said. “We want it to be totally immersive, we want them to be totally there with us. The point is to challenge everyone in the room to think differently, to do things differently.”

Sikkel said this objective is inspired by the fact that “Beautiful Child” is said to be a thought-provoking play. The play features characters who commit terrible acts against one another.

Junior Katelyn Mitchell plays Delia, Harry’s mistress and secretary. She said she believes the play is all about characters hiding secrets from each other.

“It’s a play where every single character is deeply connected to every other character. Everyone’s got a secret, and they all come out,” Mitchell said.

“It’s very sad — it’s very emotionally moving. It’s an intense play.”

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