"GOD"
MHS drama tickles the funny bone with a Woody Allen play

Carol Brimm

Laughter filled Mustang High School auditorium last week as the MHS drama department took on the challenge of presenting Woody Allen’s play “God”. The cast did a great job, carrying the audience along with them in this fast paced, slapstick comedy that twists together a Greek Tragedy with random modern day characters and members of the audience spilling over onto the stage.

The play begins with two ancient Greeks, “Hepatitis”, a writer played by Josh Batty and “Diabetes”, an actor played by J.D. Meyer, glumly discussing the need to find an ending to the play Hepatitis is writing and Diabetes is appearing in when they suddenly discover they are in a play themselves and the audience is watching them.

A good part of the cast starts out planted in the audience and eventually ends up on the stage as the play proceeds. Doris Levine, played by senior Lyssa Parker, is the first to join the Greeks on stage as a member of the audience trying to help the boys sort out an ending for Hepatitis’ play. Parker’s performance reflects the skill and confidence she has gained through four years of MHS drama and both Batty and Meyer do an excellent job overplaying their roles to bring out the best of Woody Allen’s satirical humor. When Hepatitis (Batty) expresses his attraction for the beautiful Doris (Parker), Diabetes (Meyer) jumps in with an objection only Woody Allen could imagine.

“You’re fictional, she’s Jewish,” Diabetes quips to Hepatitis. “Do you know what the children would be like?”

As the characters again focus on how to end Hepatitis’ play the answer to their dilemma appears in the form of Appendicitis, played by Cameron Bridger and his sidekick Bursitis, played by Todd Gorman. Gorman and Bridger are great physical comedy actors and brought down the house with their physical portrayal of a boss pulling his employees strings and Bursitis’ (Gorman) portrayal of a thunderbolt brandishing Zeus, dressed in only suspenders and a cloud, descending from a ‘God machine’ to save the day – providing Hepatitis with the perfect ending for his play.

The play is interspersed with characters that appear onstage in modern day dress and bring their own brand of chaos. A distressed Blanche DuBois, played by Caitlyn Bernhardt appears seeking refuge in Hepatitis’ play and Bernhardt delivers a highly believable performance as the syrupy southern belle.

As Hepatitis' play begins a chorus, played by Lindsay Strout, Karena Van Horn, Amanda Titus, Kayla Bennett, Dacey Huber, Lindsay Schraad, and Macy Conley offers a running dialog and commentary keeping the audience on track with the appearance of each new character, which included a stylin’ "Master" played by Wes Mathew, a modern day playwright played by Beth Copeland, a New York bound vacationing couple, Bob and Wendy Fate, played by the hysterically funny Brian Abraham and Hannah Otto, an aristocratic young king played by the exceptionally handsome Ty Fanning, and a variety of other actors who lent their skills to quick slaps of humor that kept the play moving and the audience laughing.

Jonathan Curtain’s deadpan portrayal of the powerful guard who takes lunch orders was so dead on it projected Allen’s satirical view to perfection.

All told the MHS presentation of “God” was a pleasure to watch and Drama Director Emily Farnham deserves high marks for pulling from her students the over the top performances required to make this play succeed. Farnham said she chose the play after seeing it performed at the state competition by Tulsa Union who took third place.

“Troy Powell, the drama director at Tulsa Union, allowed us to borrow a lot of the major set pieces for this performance, including the ‘God Machine’,” Farnham said. “He has been completely and totally generous and it’s blown me away.”

Farnham also credits Jade Austin for choreographing the timed movements of the chorus.