Rumors brings NYC gossip to MHC
Photograph by Annetta Li ’16.
Laruen Weiss ’14, Alexandra Slucky ’16, Leah Hammond ’14 and Emily Kammerlohr ’15 perform in Mount Holyoke’s production of Rumors. Rumors, directed by Rachael Berman ’14, tells the story of four upper-class couples who attend the 10th Anniversary celebration of their friends Myra and Charlie. When they reach the party, they realize that the hired help is gone, Myra is gone and Charlie has shot himself in the earlobe. Fearing a scandal, the couples seek to hide the crime from the police and the media and chaos ensues.
The air is frenetic, filled with a distinct, uncommon air of mystery and petty high school gossip. Women stride across the stage in cocktail dresses and accusations of infidelity are flung from actor to actor in a whirlwind of activity. This is Neil Simon’s perspective on the life of the New York elite, a tongue-in-cheek critique of the immature social structure of those who pride themselves on their class.
At the center of this production are two unseen characters, Mayor Charlie Brock and his wife, Myra, at their 10th anniversary party. Charlie had a bullet shot through his earlobe in an apparent suicide attempt and Myra has mysteriously gone missing. As the guests arrive, the audience is presented with their comical struggle to preserve Charlie’s reputation and conceal the events of the evening from one another. The show culminates in a hilarious encounter with a policeman and one of the characters stumbling into the truth.
By far the most interesting part of the production is the dynamic between each couple. Ken and Chris (played by Emily Kammerlohr ’15 and Samantha Miorin ’14), the first couple presented to the audience and arguably the stars of the show, are caught up in the quintessential power struggle between the sexes. Lenny (Leah Hammond ’14) is convinced that his wife, Claire (Gabriella Christian-Sola ’14) is of mediocre intelligence. Cookie (Christine Harding ’16) and Ernie (Lauren Weiss ’14), have arguably the most healthy dynamic, though they are ironically presented as being of a lower class than any of the other couples. The characters Glenn and Cassie appear to be the couple with the most strife, since Glenn dismisses his wife’s beliefs and treats her as a complete intellectual inferior.
Miorin played a remarkably convincing Chris, who is clearly the most competent party guest, embodying the character’s struggle to balance concealing the truth, pleasing her difficult, arrogant husband and keeping the false pretense of calm with both the guests and the police. She effortlessly painted Chris as a frantic, high-strung woman, while also making it clear to the audience that she is one of the most powerful people in the room.
Photograph by Photo by Annetta Li ’16.
Elena Livorni ’17 and Leah Hammond ’14 perform in Project: Threatre’s production of Rumors by Neil Simon.
Christian-Sola’s performance as the fabulous Claire deserves recognition as one of the most amusing in the play. Through Christian-Sola’s efforts, Claire was at once ditzy and ironically intelligent, sarcastic and gossipmongering. She is one of the more likable characters in a cast of unpleasant and immoral people, and Christian-Sola shined as the sassy Claire.
The standout performance of the entire production belonged to Leah Hammond. Hammond played Lenny with impeccable timing and emotional depth. She delivered her monologue at the close of the show and the audience was with her every step of the way as she invented a fantastical, implausible and downright hilarious story. Her expressions were spot-on throughout the production and she even maintained the crick in Lenny’s neck for the entirety of the two acts. She balanced Lenny’s intelligence with his own apparent emotional immaturity, since he was so convinced that one of the Brocks were having an affair. Hammond brought the house down with her impeccably played Lenny and was in every way a pleasure to watch.
Not only were the actors on top of their performances, but the set, costumes, hair and makeup complemented the setting and haughty characters. The set implied extravagance, with upholstered furniture, a bar and lavish props. The costumes fit each character’s personality, with the women in cocktail dresses or, in Cookie’s case, an out-of-date floor-length gown that belied her slightly lower social class, which resulted in her relegation to the kitchen. The men were clad in suits and Ernie, Cookie’s husband and Mayor Brock’s lawyer, wore an eccentric ensemble of clashing patterns, which indicated, again, his lower social class. The hair and makeup were beautifully done and those who played males passed easily. The Performance went off without a hitch thanks to the tech crew’s exceptional lighting and sound design skills.
Director Rachael Berman’s (’14) production of Rumors embodied the play’s themes of friendship, the dramatics of the upper classes, infidelity and loyalty by implying that the characters cared more about the protection of Charlie’s reputation than Charlie as an individual, and illustrating the strife between each of the couples. Berman put on a captivating and amusing production of Rumors, one that would make Neil Simon proud.
Author: Leora Sharma Leora is a Contributing Writer for MHN.
11:25 pm
Great review of a great show!