Generally, when you go to a play, the audience may laugh a little during the show and then clap at the end, but there isn’t much feedback from the audience until the play is over.
However, it’s a different story with “Is He Dead?” the current play being performed by the Whitworth Theatre Department. It opened Friday, March 5.
The premise of the play is about an artist named Jean-Francois Millet who is forced into poverty by Bastian Andre, the villain of the play. Millet stages his own death with the help of his friends so that the price of his art will go up.
“A big thing is that it’s a melodrama,” sophomore Kyle Allison said. “It’s the style of play, so it’s not a faux pas to do so. It makes the show more funny.”
When Mark Twain wrote this play, melodrama was a popular type of play, which is something the audience should know before they come, said senior Mark Frazier in an e-mail interview.
“Anyone who comes to see this show should feel free to interact with us by laughing, clapping, booing and hissing,” Frazier said. “It just makes the show really fun for everyone, even us actors, when we have that kind of interaction. Especially in our culture where we like to pretend we aren’t really there watching at all.”
The set also added to the melodrama feel of the play.
“I thought the set was beautiful, and I thought it was stylistically a great set-up for melodrama,” sophomore Isabel Nelson said.
The set is interactive, providing elements for the actors to use in order to further enhance the story. Two doors on stage provided an entertaining way for characters to move in and out of scenes, the couch became a meeting point and the many paintings were moved, displayed and exchanged throughout the play.
“It’s very well organized. We had a lot of difficulties in the creation of the set and I think we’ve done a good job with it,” sophomore Jack Fletcher said.
Although the cast was working with a script, they were able to add in many comedic moments that developed during rehearsals.
“So much of this show was put together through jokes we were pulling on each other that ended up just being funny enough to put into the show,” Frazier said. “We all had such a great time playing around, and Rick [Hornor] encourages that; every rehearsal was a great time to laugh.”
The audience was provided ample opportunities to laugh at Twain’s sense of humor and the actor’s interpretations of the script. The plot experiments with cross-dressing, ludicrous villains and confused romance.
“My favorite character was Dutchy,” freshman Nathanael Jordan said. “His stinky bag of food and ‘Shake!’ made the play.”
Sophomore Katie Daroff saw the play because her parents had seen it and recommended it to her, but she didn’t think it would be as funny as it was.
“It exceeded my expectations,” she said. “It was so great.”
Although the play is a comedy, it still sends some messages.
“It’s well worth seeing just for the laughs; I mean it’s hilarious,” sophomore Maery Simmons said. “I don’t know if there’s supposed to be more to it than that, but there is more than just comedy. It says a lot about society.”
Stephanie Jordan-Thompson also contributed to this story.
Contact Caitlin Richmond at caitlin.richmond@whitworthian.com.
REVIEW: ‘Is He Dead?’
Published: Monday, March 8, 2010
Updated: Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Be the first to comment on this article!