elisabeth freligh / NL Kristina Root performs in the final one-act titled ‘Flambee.’   elisabeth freligh / NL Student actors Charlotte Kopp and Rudy Ascott perform in ‘Time Flies.’ This student production is about the hurried life of may flies, which are born and then die in the same day.   elisabeth freligh / NL Edward (played by Cail Musick-Slater) performs in the student-directed one-act play ‘How Gertrude Stormed the Philosophers’ Club.’ Three one-act performances on Saturday night were presented in the Arts Building.

One-acts a mix of sex, humor
and death

By Natalia Korshin
Northern Light

In the theatrical world, there is theater and student-directed theater. The theater department presented three student-directed one acts March 13. The performance was called “Death…with a Twist.” Death was certainly on my mind for the first half of the show.

The first play, “How Gertrude Stormed the Philosophers’ Club,” was painful. Written by Martin Epstein, the shallow plot and the utterly empty acting made it a rough half hour. Lundon Boyd and Cail Musick-Slater played so-called philosophers and their stiff delivery was outright boring. When Boyd’s character shoots a waiter five times out of self-defense, he barely comes across as upset.

Then, for some reason, a female softball player named Gertrude enters the plot and talks directly to the audience about how she is spying on the philosophers. This is where the show becomes a lesson on how not to do a one-act. Director Cedar Cussins had actor Erika Johnson spinning in circles in order to be seen by the three-sided audience in the Arts Building’s studio theater.

After a bizarre sleepwalking sex scene, the audience was punished with a tuneless, poorly paced musical sequence. Audience members left the theater at intermission saying, “Wow, that was really horrible.”

Oh, and by the way, it is supposed to be a comedy. The real lesson to be learned is that comedy is hard to pull off when you can’t act.

Thankfully, the first act didn’t set the tone for the rest of the evening.

The second show was a polar opposite of its predecessor. “Time Flies,” directed by Stuart Matthews, was upbeat and damn funny. Playwright David Ives is known for his hilarious contemporary dialogues such as “Sure Thing” and “Variations on the Death of Trotsky.” It was obvious that the script was written by a comedic pro.

The show followed the somewhat hurried life of may flies, insects with an extremely short life span. Rudy Ascott and seasoned actor Charlotte Kopp had perfect comedic timing as they played out their fast-forwarded relationship only to discover that their entire existence consisted of being born, meeting, mating and dying all in one day.

The most stimulating scene of the night was when the flies performed the act of mating, as narrated by David Attenborough (John Kiefer Bowne). Their buzzing kisses and fast-paced antennae stroking was a riot.

“Time Flies” didn’t miss a beat and broke any stereotypes of student-directed theater.

“Death…with a Twist” finished nicely with a creative play entitled “Flambee.” Although the plot was funny and the acting was acceptable, the show wasn’t flawless. Charles Madson played Morris Blackburn, a fiction writer who decides to become part of his own character’s life. Megan Spence, played by Kristina Root, is the one-dimensional character who goes on a blind date and meets her creator. Blackburn falls madly in love with his character, but gives her free will to choose whether or not she returns his love.

Madson had impeccable delivery but director Dannielle DeShasier had him placed on stage so that his back was to the crowd, hindering the audience from seeing most of his animated facial expressions. Root also faced away from the audience during most of the show and her lack of volume and enunciation led to some lost lines.

The script, written by James Buescher, was original and witty. Despite a confusing tangent involving two screaming women, it was an enjoyable experience.

Overall, the night was a mixture of agony and pleasure. It wasn’t a complete loss and there were times when the audience was in stitches. The one-acts blatantly showed how difficult it is to direct, perform and achieve comedy and how good it feels when the humor is dead on.