For Mindy Chokalingham '01, nothing is considered too sacred for the stage -- and rightly so. Chokalingham's "Shocking! Appalling! Terrible! Awful!" infuses a much--needed breath of fresh air into a campus that often takes itself too seriously.
As her senior culminating experience in drama, Chokalingham wrote and directed 14 short plays, randomly strung together in one evening of fantastic comic theater.
Complementing Chokalingham's talent for writing brief and acutely hilarious scripts is her equally hilarious cast. Eli Jorne '02, Hannah Kenah '01, Liv Rooth '03 and Jeff Withers '02 offer an evening of laughs through spoofs on musical numbers, skits with cast members' playing animals and not-so-subtle commentary on the Dartmouth community.
Jorne and Withers steal the show with their unique takes on the strange group of characters they play.
Jorne garners many well-deserved laughs for his hysterical interpretation of a Bulgarian fortune teller with a penchant for Americans, the baby-delivering Stork and a not-so-romantic CIA agent.
Withers shines equally well in his roles, which include a spotted deer and, in particular, a pregnant cat he plays in the last skit of the evening.
Rooth is stellar in her portrayals of the various female characters. She is drop-dead hilarious as the alcoholic Mrs. Shortcake who is driven to the bottle because of the problems with her daughter, Strawberry.
A mainstay at Drama Department productions, Kenah does not surprise anyone with her capacity to please. She is utterly compelling as the sleazy secretary of Mr. California and the shrewd and powerful Cat Burglar.
Chokalingham's strongest writing of the evening comes most certainly in "Jeff''s Monologue" and "It's Not Representative."
Withers comes out on stage and appears to begin a normal monologue on breaking the fourth wall convention in theater. This, however, quickly devolves into a laughing matter when Rooth shows him how it is impossible for him to break from his character.
Chokalingham's style is light but witty enough to bring the actors to a whole different level.
Politically speaking, Chokalingham makes her most blunt statement with "It's Not Representative." She does so in a way though that is both thought-provoking and also reminds us that we can laugh at ourselves.
"It's Not Representative" begins with Jorne entering onstage wearing a Dartmouth Indians T-shirt and spewing forth a series of racist jokes. And as with several other skits during the evening, a planted audience member rises in protest to the material on stage.
In the tradition of musical theater, the cast then proceeds to break out in song about the formulaic change of heart that Jorne undergoes.
His character goes from being a "cowardly minion" of the greater Greek system to sponsoring a "diversity luncheon" and becoming "reformed."
While Chokalingham is cutthroat and unafraid of tackling the most controversial humor, she delights (and will hopefully continue to delight) a wide variety of audiences.
"Shocking! Appalling! Terrible! Awful!" is showing in the Hopkins Center's Bentley Theater tonight at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tickets are $1 at the door. But if last night's show was any indication of audience size, be prepared to line up early for tickets.
