top of page

Drama Department's One-Act A Fun Way To Get Depressed

Connor Strange

Staff Writer

The WHS drama department showed its newest production, “The Last Train,” on Nov. 19. It was a pretty good performance, and sad at that; parts of it showed some strong acting that evoked plenty of emotion from the audience.

It told the tale of a soldier of Nazi Germany and a girl from his hometown bound for Auschwitz. Eric (junior Tucker Flodman) and his friend Hans (senior Dalton Polivka) are both low-ranking soldiers who find themselves questioning the morality of Hitler’s cause and the viability of continuing the war. They are assigned to guarding a train of Jews on its way to Auschwitz.

Eric is faced with yet another reason to question his service in the military when a girl from his hometown, who is clearly not a Jew, appears as one of the passengers to the death camp. She and her family were found in Holland and declared traitors to the Reich, but the soldier doesn’t want to see someone he knows sent off to die.

It’s certainly no lighthearted love story or anything of that sort. The setting of Nazi Germany is quite gloomy, especially considering that all of the soldiers are on the decline of the war, in which Hitler’s military power is all but wiped out. Of course, the soldiers aren’t fighting for a good cause, but their defeatist attitudes are disheartening even still.

The dialogue had some minor issues here and there, though it’s hard to tell if it was from execution or writing. Some of the speech didn’t mesh together very well or transition smoothly, but all-in-all, it was definitely passable for a high school play.

Flodman did a great portrayal of his role, Eric, using his abilities to accurately display a sense of despair. Hans was more a voice of reason, but in that Polivka did a reasonably good job. Junior Dillon Kell was a bit wishy-washy as Colenel Stadt, and senior Spencer Prockish’s performance was over-the-top as the irritable Herr Mueller, but they were convincingly likable and hateable, respectively. Sophomore Emma Scheel portrayed the girl bound for Auschwitz, and while her crying was mildly melodramatic, she was enjoyable.

For a production by a small high school’s drama department, it was very good. It was certainly not Broadway, but it exceeded expectation for the resources available to Waverly.

There are some parts that were quite unexpected sprinkled onto the play, and it made for a mildly enjoyable experience to see the WHS crew take on something so depressing.

bottom of page