Would it be utterly egocentric if I said that the WC Theater plays and musicals are in complete astral alignment with me? Perhaps it would. But it seems like every time I watch one of our beautiful productions, they speak to me about matters that trouble me and offer me a solution… or at least some sort of atonement. Again, am I being weird if I told you that this has become my new form of therapy?
You Can’t Take It With You taught me that I need to fake my death to avoid taxes.
The End.
No. Well, yeah. But, whatever: our theater’s fall production was the 1930s American comedic play, You Can’t Take It With You. The title alludes to the idea that wealth and material possessions have no place in the afterlife. So, yes, it is a very elaborate play whose main points are a) do what makes you happy and b) love conquers all.
I understand that not every person in the world is a sucker for these types of morals; you know, sometimes all a human wants to do is watch Deadpool & Wolverine and call it a masterpiece that can make a grown man cry—whatever, I’m not judging (I am). However, although love and happiness are the main themes for YCTIWY, they never seem overly cheesy. It is posed over the acceptable pH of cheesy that makes me cry and not barf. And let me tell you, this tone between basic and acidic is hard to achieve. But it was achieved flawlessly.
Now, we can thank the cast for that. It is not hard to notice that this particular play is challenging to portray sensibly; for instance, the two threads of the story—the comedic aspect and the life lessons portrayed—are embedded within each other, so much so that there is a constant danger of overplaying one of these aspects over the other.
But hear me out when the entirety of the adult demographic that watched the play can laugh at the sex jokes and cry at the end because they presumably remembered those days in their lives when they had the choice to be happy, but they chose the 9-5 job instead of herding alpacas in Peru, then, yeah, consider it an accomplishment.
Finally, I ought to explain why this is in astral alignment with me and everyone in this school: we are in the time of our lives when we can still choose happiness, and we can still afford to believe that love conquers all. And you know what? I was not so sure that I would do either. But after watching our WC Theater’s production, I chose what I can take with me: a sense of pride for the cast.
(photos by Sunny Romo)