A man comes home to Germany after three years at war. Finding his wife with another man, he is left outside. He travels through the streets, trying to find a place to sleep. His journey brings misfortune but there is a voice telling him not to give up.

EvCC theatre presents The Man Outside. The cast includes eight actors, where some perform two or three roles each. Josh Read, a freshman at EvCC, plays the lead role of Beckmann. Throughout the play Beckmann is emotionally distraught, contemplating suicide. Read says he took on the “very unique and complex” role because he “wanted to tell the story of Beckmann.”

James Weidman directs the play, where EvCC’s theatre instructor, Beth Peterson, gave him “free range.” The play was originally written to be performed over the radio, so he uses “a lot of radio and sound effects.” This isn’t his first time at EvCC. “Three years ago Beth invited me up,” he says, to direct the comedy Epic Proportions. Weidman’s main focus is acting, recently performing in Blood Countess at the Annex Theatre in Seattle. “I like to squeeze in as much as I possibly can,” he says.

Peterson tries to “do some kind of production every term,” and says “that was my goal when I first came here, and I’ve been able to keep that goal.” Peterson invites directors from outside of EvCC, trying “to give students experience they would get from the outside world… so I’ve been bringing in people who I know are good.”

Although The Man Outside contains some bleak moments, Weidman says there’s “always sort of a glimmer of hope, no matter how dark it gets.”