For decades, grade school children have memorized poems from “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and learned life lessons from “The Giving Tree,” both books written by Shel Silverstein.
But the iconic author was not always so child-friendly.
Before he broke out in children’s books, Silverstein wrote much raunchier material. It was this so-bad-it’s-good writing that AU Players performed Feb. 10-12.
The show, titled “An Adult Evening with Shel Silverstein,” displayed seven AU student actors in 10 separate scenes, all written by Silverstein. The subject matter was kooky, with scenes ranging from a concerned husband confronting a “bag lady” to a scene where the sole words uttered were “meat and potatoes.”
“While the show might be very adult, it depicts normal people in their normal lives,” said Rosemary Cipriano, a freshman member of AU Players.
The show doesn’t hold back and lives up to its name, as one of the most evident themes throughout the scenes was sex.
One such scene was the humorous “Buy One, Get One Free,” featuring Cipriano and freshman Rebekah Nantz as prostitutes. With the title in mind, the audience could easily decipher what the scene was to be about.
A few scenes were slow to start and others were less funny than the rest.
Nevertheless, the actors’ performances did not waver. They put their hearts into each line, and while the audience was on the smaller side, did not let it deter them from doing their best.
The audience’s reaction to most scenes was exactly as Cipriano had predicted.
“People have no idea what they’re getting into when they come to see the show,” she said. “There’s a strong ‘Oh my God!’ factor.”
Even with the show’s name as a sort of forewarning, some of the very strong language took the audience aback.
The crowd was surprised at the dark humor in a few of the scenes, including one where a little girl, Lisa, (Chris Carillo) is horrified when her father (Anthony Logan Cole) tells her that he has shot and killed the pony she wanted for her birthday.
This particular scene developed quite nicely, and in the end, it’s not as gruesome as it initially seems, but that did not stop the audience from gasping.
Yet, even with the consistent foul language and non-conventional subject matter, the show was unexpectedly hilarious.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
