Lauren SlivaA mixture of comedy and politics comes together in this semester’s production from the Cabrini College Theater. “The Complete History of America Abridged” takes the audience on a historical journey while giving a humorous twist to each era.
The production has brought in many audience members each night. Each seat in the theater was occupied by either a family member of one of the cast, a friend of a cast member or someone interested in watching a politically incorrect play about history.
“We haven’t done a crazy comedy in a few years, and I think it’s a great change for the theater,” Shannon Winters, senior English secondary education major, said.
The play goes above and beyond covering as much history in just a two-hour production. Appearances from many important people in history appear in this play. These include George Washington, Lewis & Clark and Lucille Ball.
“I normally hate history so I was surprised that I actually enjoyed this play. It was funny and kept me entertained,” Megan Hawkinson, sophomore elementary special education major, said.
“I never thought I would get to see a famous historical figure’s comical side,” Lindsay Anderson, sophomore elementary education major, said.
The fast-paced production gets the audience involved in segments such as “Queen for a Day.” The audience member is asked a question about an important woman in history for them to guess who the question was describing. Coincidentally the answer to every one of these questions was Whoopi Goldberg.
Singing was also a great factor. The cast sang funny songs about the era in time in which they were. Junior Rob Stoop and senior Michael Krencicki performed a daytime talk show theme for Lewis and Clark. Stoop also played the piano for numerous skits of the play.
“Hearing the audience laugh gives all the actors so much more energy to really make a fantastic show,” Danielle Alio, sophomore communication major, said.
The ending of the play consisted of an old movie ending. Krencicki played a detective on a hunt to catch a criminal played by Stoop. On the hunt, Krencicki and Stoop encountered buckets of water, little plastic toy baby dolls and spaghetti all being thrown in their direction. Alio also smashed a pie in Stoop’s face in the production while mastering both an Italian and Korean accent.
To catch a play with a lot of action that will also catch your attention with its witty humor, “The Complete History of America Abridged” was the perfect show to watch.
“I feel that people love to be entertained and that is exactly what the play does,” Maddie Iacobucci, junior communication major and cast member, said.
