I was waiting for someone else to post a review about this show, because I didn’t feel like I could write one. I’m still not quite sure what actually happened in Union Theatre that night, and I’m saying that in the best way possible.
It started with seven girls marching onto the stage, with a nun proceeding to stand behind a podium in front of them. Soon we found out that it was set in 1963, in some St Peter College something-or-other girls boarding school. Four of the girls were roommates — I’m not even going to try to type up their character names because I know I’ll just get them all mixed up.
Over the next forty minutes, these happened: a girl fell pregnant, had an abortion, got depressed, committed suicide; another girl realised that she couldn’t be with her singer girlfriend, sung about how she could never marry someone, got together with one of her roommate by the end of the show; the aforementioned roommate was constantly tripping on acid, and she was also our main narrator throughout the show; the last girl in the bunch was concerned about academia and was baffled that her friends didn’t bother studying for their test, but she tried helping her no-longer-pregnant friend by swapping their test papers. There were kisses. There were beautiful songs with gorgeous harmonies. There was a cloaked, dancing Death. Also there was an owl. And a pink rabbit. And the musicians wore masks – one of which was a shark fin.
If your reaction to that paragraph is, “Wait… what??” – let me just answer with: “Exactly.”
It’s not that there wasn’t a story in this musical. There was a very concrete and witty one, and if I were to describe it in musicals, I’d say that it’s a love child of Spring Awakening and Hair. This show made the most out of the resources that were available to them and, somehow, they crafted a story that was enjoyable and entertaining to watch.
It was sheer fun and excitement to see this musical performed on stage, when everyone in the theatre knew that it was written, rehearsed and performed within such limited time frame. Everyone involved did a fantastic job and they pulled it off tremendously well. I wish it had been longer, and I overheard some people wishing that it could be performed again. If you didn’t get to see it — man, you missed out on one hell of a ride.
photo by David Haidon
No comments:
Post a Comment