This past weekend, the Fallston High School Drama Company put on the production You Can’t Take It with You. Their three shows on November 10, 11, and 12 drew a combined crowd of more than 345 people.
You Can’t Take It with You is a fast-paced comedy revolving around the quirky Sycamore Family that consists of Grandpa (Nate Hawk), Mrs. Sycamore (Lex Courtney), Mr. Sycamore (Eric Vanderbeek), Essie (Olivia Querns), her husband Ed (Lawrence Acevedo), and Alice Sycamore (Jules Vendetti). Alice wants to bring home her new boyfriend, Tony Kirby (Zack Patton), and his parents (Lillian Shoobridge and Kaden Henderson), so she instructs her family to be normal for their visit. However, the Kirby family comes a day early, leaving the Sycamore family unprepared and causing chaos. On the day of their visit the household is in utter pandemonium with friends of the family Boris Kohlenkhov (Marco Garcia) and Mr. De Pinna (Stevie Bell) running rampant. That’s not all though because the Sycamore’s employees, Rheba (Abby Allen) and Donald (Shawn Kramer), have not had time to clean the house or prepare the meal and government officials (Kai Alon, Chloe Gehring, Maddie Stevens, Arianna Garcia, Ethan Farley, and Avery Adams) also unexpectedly show up.
Although I am no theater critic, I did enjoy the show.
The stage crew did an exceptional job on this show. The show’s set was great. It had lots of attention to detail; one of the pictures on the wall even featured Herr Jones’ mom. The show also had colored and flashing lights corresponding with firework noises.
The costume and makeup were very good as well. Nate Hawk was sporting his own grandfather’s sweater and very realistic-looking grey hair while two other cast members, Zack Patton and Eric Vanderbeek, also dyed their hair to look more like their characters.
The show itself was very funny. I thought Grandpa, played by Nate Hawk, did especially well. It was his fifth show in the drama company, and you can tell. He looked so comfortable in his role, and his sense of humor came out through his character. My favorite part of the show was when Ed would play his saxophone and Essie would dance every time. The show had many repetitive bits that made it feel like an inside joke with the crowd. Another funny one was how a drunk Ms. Wellington (Kay Lindhorst) slept on the stage for the majority of Act Two.
Another great part of the show was the dynamic of the love interests Alice Sycamore, played by Jules Vendetti, and Tony Kirby, played by Zack Patton. They had amazing romantic banter and two onstage kisses throughout the show.
But by far the most interesting part of the show was the careful chaos in which the events unfolded, ultimately leading to a heartfelt ending that left audience members reflective of their relationships with their own families. This was helped by the appearance of Russian Royal Family member, Olga (Corinne Carlson), coming in to cure some of the chaos.
Now I’m ready to go green and enter the Little Shop of Horrors.
