The Dark Side of the Theatre

In my theatre department, we have a streak of dark musical and plays being performed. I don't really don't understand why we have to do these dark shows but it is interesting. I have enjoyed performing in them even though they are a little depressing and evil. It is not that there haven't been happy shows in the middle of the dark ones but they are just fewer than the dark ones.



It all began sophomore year when I became the mutated plant from outer space, Audrey II. Yes. We did Little Shop of Horrors. It was a great show but it was extremely dark. The story is that in a small big city flower shop a dorky orphan buy finds an alien plant. he names it after his love interest, Audrey, and it starts to give the shop business. But he soon discovers that it eats humans and it will die if he doesn't feed it. He spends the rest of the show finding it food until it end up eating him and taking over the world. Great ending right?



The next show was Arsenic and Old Lace. It is the Story of the Brewster family. The sisters and aunts of the other characters are crazy and believe that they are doing old men a favor if they murder them and bury them in the basement of their house. Teddy, one of the boys, lives with his aunts and believes that he is Teddy Roosevelt. Mortimer is an up tight man who is trying to have a life of his own with his girlfriend but is to busy trying to help his crazy family to do that. and the final brother is Jonathan. He is a mass murderer and is coming home to hide. You can imagine the events that would follow with all of those characters in one house.



The next show that we are auditioning for this week is the bloodiest and must gruesome of them all, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It tells the story of Benjamin Barker who was a London barber until the judge steals his wife and child and exiles him for no reason. He returns and tries to get the judge to come to his shop so he can kill him but he won't. He goes crazy with his frustration and decides with the shop keeper below him that he would be doing the world a favor to kill those who are too pitiful. He kills people and makes them into meat pies and that is where the rest of the story starts.

So what will happen next? Well no one really knows. At this rate we will probably do more dark shows before we start doing happy ones. Maybe we will get back to shows like Cinderella which we did my freshman year. Shows that my little siblings will actually be able to see. But only time will tell.