On Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, people passing by the Great Lawn were surprised to see a man suspended from a wooden structure looking down at orange parking cones being "killed" by another man below. This was all part of a three-day performance called "Hunting War," which was part of The Festival of the Arts. Peter Belenky '04 and Cameron Gordon '04 re-enacted wartime scenarios on these three afternoons in their unique representational style. Wednesday was the Crusades and Thursday was the war in Iraq; each had its own little twist.The basic premise is that, suspended from an overhang, a voyeur looks down on a battle re-enactment in this "unique blend of theater, sculpture and history into performing art." On Thursday, with one performer suspended in the air in a suit and armed with a reporter's notebook looking on, the other performer emerged from the faculty club woods with an army shirt and a plastic gun, and began eliminating the cones one by one. The last target ended up leaving both performers dead in the final scene.

This very unique perspective on war allowed for an enjoyable, sometimes slow, very interesting reenactment of war. The performance seemed to be reaching for a message, but that message was never attained in the end. It needed some type of ending to really finalize it and send the message home. Also, the actor suspended from the hanging could have done more to enhance his character; he was almost too simple. Although not in a stage environment, both characters were very professional in their performance. People were constantly walking through and some were laughing, but the actors never broke from character. The overall performance was good, however, it could have been enhanced with some type of conclusion.