By Alice Besidski
The IHS Drama club recently performed their annual play on the weekend of November 15, 2024. This year, instead of the typical hour and a half long production, the Drama Club took on the ambitious project of putting on three separate 45 minute plays.
The plays included “Red Herring” by Russel D. Jones, a murder mystery turned comedy, “The Fruitcake” by Dyawne Yancey, a story of a family trying to figure out what is in their Aunt Hazel’s seemingly indestructible fruitcake, and “The Velocity of Sin” by Kamron Kiltgaard, a drama where three pairs are all trapped, moving through time at different speeds, their misdeeds revealed as they try and find a way out of their precarious situation.
My personal favorite was “Red Herring,” a raunchy murder mystery comedy that follows a group of actors unhappy with the play they are performing. As the characters make changes to their play, the fake murders of their production turn real, characters “killing” each other for a variety of reasons. The play was fast paced, if a little slow in the beginning, with an unseriousness that made it funny.
“The Fruitcake” was chaotic in its own way, characters running around all doing their own thing. The play was centered around a family during the holidays, some attempting to set up for Christmas dinner, with the others trying to destroy their Aunt Hazel’s fruitcake, attempting to figure out what makes it unbreakable. It was a more typical comedy than the“Red Herring”, with characters delivering a variety of hilarious one liners.
“The Velocity of Sin” was the slowest paced of all the plays. “I thought it was not typical of the school, more complex than the usual comedic productions,” said junior Ruby Fieser. “The Velocity of Sin” follows three pairs of people, each stuck moving through time at different speeds. As the play progresses, the characters slowly figure out what has happened to them, and along the way reveal dark truths about themselves. The play ends rather abruptly, with two scientists coming on stage proclaiming that the pairs will be stuck in time forever.
All in all, each play had its charms, from the sudden plot twists of “Red Herring”, the satire of “the Fruitcake”, and the seriousness of “The Velocity of Sin”. The effort of each actor was clear. “They did a really good job. I’m really proud of the ability of the actors to navigate these three different characters and worlds,” said Stephen DiGiovanni, director of the Drama Club.
The cast also had a good time putting on the production. “Being a part of the play was so much fun, I loved being with all my cast mates,” said sophomore Lily Korb. “It was like joining a family, and it was so fun to work with them.”
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