The student news site of Westford Academy

WA Ghostwriter

The student news site of Westford Academy

WA Ghostwriter

The student news site of Westford Academy

WA Ghostwriter

“5 Women” Play Brilliantly Done

Lauren Cullen, Staff Writer

In this witty black-box production directed by senior Audrey Seraphin, the main focus is the behind the scenes look of a group of bridesmaids on their not so special day.

While flipping thru the playbill, I noticed a “Content Advisory Warning.” The warning said the production contained “explicit language, sexual innuendo, and drug usage.” This discovery added an air of mystery of what was to come in the next hour and a half. Within a few minutes, the lights dimmed and the spotlights shined on the bedroom furniture in the middle of the room.

The start of 5 Women had most of the audience on the edge of their seats, with several impatient knocks on the door. Suddenly an actress burst through it, and ended up hiding under the bed when another character came quickly through the same door. As the beginning of the show was intended to do, it hooked the audience.

A few minutes into the production, the Content Warning was proved to be obscenely true. The characters were using drugs and swearing repetitively, almost more than needed. You could tell that there was more going on with the characters then just their appearances, enticing the spectators even more.

As more characters were introduced, the audience got their opinions of the big day, and the people attending such an event. One of the main characters, Frances, who was played by freshman Emily Du, added great humor to the first act. When the other characters, Meredith and Trisha, played by Jenie Michael and Meredith Eaton, offered her drugs, Du’s character repeatedly refused, saying she couldn’t because she was a Christian. That really got the audience laughing.

In the first act, the characters Meredith and Trisha were talking about several other unintroduced characters. This made it a bit confusing to keep up, especially since later in the play these people were more prominent.

Towards the end of the act, another two characters entered. The first was Georgeanne, played by Braley Degenhardt. She ran into the room screaming about how a man had mistreated her with a bottle in her hands, and then disappeared into the corner. Then came Mindy, played by sophomore Renee Craig. Craig was very natural and played Mindy brilliantly.

Craig had the audience laughing extremely hard when in the second act, her character Mindy impersonated a Southern pageant girl. Craig kept her performance up throughout the act and kept the audience entertained. One could say that she even outshone all of the other actresses.

Compared to Craig’s performance, some of the other actresses seemed stiff. This was probably because this was the second show of the night after a long break with little to no rehearsal time.

It was clear the audience was more hooked in the second act than in the first. Braley Degenhart’s character Georgeanne entered in the second act highly intoxicated, and her drunken antics were very entertaining. Emily Du’s character Frances returned and also had the audience laughing with her innocent Christian ways.

Toward the end of the play, however, things turned dark and gloomy when the group of bridesmaids learned of a horrible secret from the character Meredith’s past. The emotions from the girls were very relatable, and the audience’s faces read pure sadness.

At the very end, Meredith Eaton’s character Trisha showed her true colors when she was trying to entice Karun Kannan’s character, Tripp Davenport, into doing what she wanted. In these last minutes, Eaton played her role excellently.

The show ended with a kiss between Tripp and Trisha which was abruptly interrupted by the other 4 bridesmaids. They all seemed happy and forced Karun’s character Tripp to take a group photo. After the sound of the camera was heard, the lights quickly turned off and 5 Women Wearing the Same Dress came to an end.

“I thought today was a strong performance and the audiences’ reactions kept us going,” said actor Karun.

The overall performance was great, with bits of comedy and sorrow. The amazing points of the actor and actresses added to the production as well.

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