Hepburn Hall buzzed with students, faculty and locals who crowded the stairways leading up to the Hepburn Zoo on opening night of “The Truth Remixed,” the 30th annual First Year show. The multi-genre comedy show, directed by Visiting Professor Ashley Nicole Baptiste, ran from Oct. 2-4.
The production combined one act comedies and original poems with its title drawing inspiration from last year’s “Echoes of Truth,” also directed by Baptiste. While last year’s show leaned towards heavy themes of love, grief and reconciliation, “The Truth Remixed” reimagined those ideas through a comedic lens.
“I feel overwhelmed by the madness and bad things happening in the world today,” Baptiste said. “I want to give people a moment of reprieve, a chance to sit back and laugh.”
The ensemble consisted of 12 actors: eight first years, two sophomores and two juniors. For some, the performance marked their first at the college, and for others, their first time acting on stage. Impressively put together in the span of three weeks, the show’s preparation proved to be fast-paced, intense and chaotic, a process Baptiste said she loves.
This intention to bring joy and laughter to the audience was reflected in the stage setup. The minimalist set featured a few chairs, couches, boxes and a door frame that transformed into a lively therapist’s office, pizza shop and president’s office. Funky pop music played as audience members took their seats, and Baptiste encouraged the crowd to react loudly to whatever they saw on stage, promising an interactive experience.
The show opened up with all 12 actors moving rhythmically in sync across the stage. At a clap, they froze, chanting together, “I am, I want, I feel, I dream,” each adding their own words, describing themselves. The moment invited the audience to consider their own answers.
The first act, titled “Your Mother’s Butt,” featured a very Freudian setup. A patient, played by Cole Silpe ’29, was stretched out on a couch in a counseling session led by psychologist Yan Zhang, ’27. The patient is indecisive and clothing-obsessed. He goes from contemplating the perfect pair of shoes to describing a weird dream of his mother wearing a hideous belt and bending over with her butt in his face. The psychologist then asks the patient to hold a conversation with his mother's butt, which prompted the audience to break out into laughter.
In this abnormal therapy session, the bizarre dialogue reveals the patient's inability to take responsibility for anything, which results in his misery. In the end, the patient refuses to admit his faults and resorts to buying another expensive pair of shoes, compelled by his materialistic desires. It felt like a mild criticism not only of the patient and his flawed character, but of therapy itself.
Subsequent scenes varied greatly in terms of plot and character. The audiences were bombarded by extraordinary scenes: an awkward pizza store love story, the crisis of the U.S. president’s PR managers when he describes his wife’s morning as “cunty,” a bizarre office love affair, a guy dumping his girlfriend by sending her a singing telegram and two sisters humorously assessing what it takes to get sent to hell based on their, very literal, interpretations of the Bible.
The last act was equally hilarious, spoofing on the trope of a straight American high school couple Kris, played by Olt Kastrati ’29, and Jeff, played by Atticus Hodges ’29. We follow their date to an “edgy” lunch spot, where they find the customers intolerable and pitiful. Their conversation is bland, shallow, not about anything in particular, and yet extremely funny.
The performance closed where it began, with the cast chanting “I am, I want, I feel, I dream,” reinforcing their discourse with additional phrases like “I hope” and “I see”. This ritual chanting after the scenes seemed to be a final act of reflection, with the actors asking themselves “Who are we?”
As people exited the Hepburn Zoo the show’s high energy hung in the air. Many reminisced on the scenes they had just witnessed, bursting into laughter at the memory of them.
