A review of Nice People (2015 play)

        Kennedy High School had the honor of premiering a Iowa-written play, Nice People. It premiered on October first at 7:00, along with repeat showings on the second and third and an unplanned 4th showing on Thursday. The play was written by a Kennedy graduate, Alosha Robinson. The play was workshopped this summer, after multiple drafts, which began during Robinson's senior year.
        The play is about several people who are cheating on their partners due to a bad relationship. They find other people that click with them better, and most everyone ends up happy. Most of the characters exist in their own self-centered world, other than Ron Dorrow, played by Caleb Marner, who sees that there could be better things in life to make life great, not just fine. The main character, Daniel Harkin, is played by Brennan Urbi, who happens to be an excellent actor. Daniel is a self-centered, egotistical man-whore who has no respect for people's personal space, and appears to be completely unaware of that. His wife, Melinda, is a shrill(when she's angry), emotional, and passionate woman with a temper. She leaves Daniel for Blaine Redbrick, played by James Tolly. Blaine is not the brightest chap, but still. Blaine eventually ends up with Monica Lucce, played by Maia Bennett. Daniel was cheating on Melinda with her until she and Blaine wisk each other away. Melinda ends up with Robert Scrood, played by Cameron Currie. Robert is a run-of-mill, oh, what's the word... Jocular pervert? I don't know, but he obviously doesn't care very much about work, instead focusing his mind and body on the pursuit of women. Nobody in the play likes Ron Darrow, but the audience feels for him because he is the constant emotional punching bag for these people.
        I read the Kennedy Torch article on this, where they got Robinson's perspective and insight on the play. His original idea for the play stemmed from his love of farces, which he acquired when he did 'Rumors' his senior year. “I’ve always loved farces, I’ve always loved comedy,” Robinson said. “We did ‘Rumors’ here my senior year, and I ended up reading a lot of farces because I’m really into that. Kind of the premise of a farce is entrances and exits, everybody’s hiding, everybody’s having sex with everybody, everybody’s lying to everybody, and the initial idea for the play was I wanted to kind of take a play that hyper-inflated the traits of a farce. I just wanted to play with the things that I love about a farce.” He wrote this play in response to a question he asked himself, "How would a anti-farcical person operate in a farcical universe?"

        On Thursday, he got to watch his vision unfold as the Drama dept. at Kennedy performed it. “I’m just exceptionally proud of what these guys have done it," he said, "You’ve just got to invest yourself entirely and these kids are insanely talented, I can’t imagine such a talented bunch of kids. I couldn’t be more happy and thrilled with what I saw tonight, I’m so proud of them. I can’t imagine it any other way now.”
        But, to know more, go see the show. Overall, it was a very funny, very crazy show, with lots of laughs.

Links:

http://kennedytorch.org/10833/artsculture/back-in-the-black-box/