Young talent takes center stage at Hart House Drama Festival

The 18th annual University of Toronto Drama Festival opened its doors on Thursday Feb. 25 to a sizeable and enthusiastic audience. The three-day festival, put on by the Hart House Theatre and the UofT Drama Coalition, hosts performances of original student plays. Performances are then adjudicated (this year's adjudicator was Drama Festival and UofT alum Jeremy Hutton). At the end of the festival, various prizes are awarded for playwriting, production, direction, acting, and technical achievement. This year's festival opened with Victoria College Drama Society's (VCDS) production of Dead End, written by Jonathan Sun and directed by Sarah Siddiqui, followed by SMC's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Electric Chair, written by former SMCSU president Andy Pignataro and directed by Deanna Carino.

VCDS's Dead End combined a cleverly-written script with a very well executed delivery. Minimalist in its staging, the one-act play explores the intricacies of human emotion by focusing on the dialogue and the interaction between two young unnamed male protagonists in the face of danger. Sole survivors of an zombie apocalypse, the protagonists, masterfully portrayed by Michael Marcucci and Nick Duranleau, try to figure out their next move.

The duo deals with impending doom by inadvertently discussing and questioning everything but the problem at hand. They bicker about banalities, over-analysing the semantics of each other's speech and talking in circles about logic and practicality. The on-stage chemistry between the two characters is evident. They feed off each other and the result is lots of laughs for the audience. The light-hearted, comic nature of the protagonists' woes is a perfect complement (and antithesis) to the horrific nature of the morbid, blood-and-guts zombie world. Throughout the play, a very aesthetically gruesome zombie, played by Jake Howell, is present on the stage. While he groans and stammers around a little bit, the zombie's function is as an objective, symbolic reminder of the bleak situation the protagonists must eventually confront. "He looks like a person, but is more like a (mindless) jellyfish," the two men agree. However, further developments suggest zombies may have feelings too.

SMC's A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Electric Chair showcased a more tongue-in-cheek, boisterous side of theatre. Its comparatively large cast and set, combined with several subplots and characters, made this production seem like the polar opposite of VCDS' festival entry.

Set in a state prison, an execution by electric chair is ready to take place and the state governor is only too pleased to attend. A successfully blown fuse, orchestrated by two inmates attempting escape, prevents the execution from occurring and allows three dangerous criminals to escape. High jinks ensue as a smorgasbord of zany characters, like a priest turned electrician, help the governor search for the would-be executed prisoner.

The entertainment value of this play lies in its slapstick comedy: situations that are far-fetched to begin with (for example, Reg, one of the inmates attempting escape, is in jail for stealing donuts) give way completely to farce. All the ridiculous situations culminate in an eight-character nerf-gun shoot-out. The scenario ends in a hilarious display of democratic mediation rather than bloodshed. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Electric Chair can be summed up by the first three words of the title: a funny thing. With this play, what you see is what you get. What you get is a wacky, feel-good comedy.

Performances by Trinity College, New College, St.Mike's, and the UTM Drama Club were scheduled for the following two evenings of the festival. The awards ceremony took place on the night of Saturday Feb. 27.

VCDS' Dead End took home a range of awards: awards of merit were presented to Johnathan Sun for playwriting, and to the ensemble cast for its acting. It also received an award for its technical achievement, as well as the impressive President's Award for Best Production.