Malibu High School’s performance provides audiences with insights into teen angst and terminal illness
Smiling broadly, an ebullient Sara Baron, a freshman thespian at Malibu High School, warmly embraced her very proud 99-year-old grandmother, Irene Baron, and her equally proud bouquet-carrying father, Doug Baron, as Sara came down the theater aisle after her performance as Dr. Scott Rhodes, a character in “John Lennon & Me,” a comedic drama performed at MHS on Nov. 22 and 23.
“You killed it!” Doug Baron commented to Sara, kiddingly adding, “You didn’t hiccup or burp or worse!”
Articulating the sentiments of the delighted, congratulatory parents, families, and friends greeting the cast and crew, Sara’s grandmother exclaimed, “It’s so wonderful to see young people who work so hard get up and perform in front of a full audience. Sara did so so well!”
The play, set in Heart House, a residence attached to a hospital for seriously or terminally ill young people, focuses on Hollywood-wannabe Star, wonderfully played by Alex Murphy. Star, the ultimate Beatles fan, has her life’s journey stymied by cystic fibrosis, an inherited disease that assures a young death due to mucus building up in one’s lungs.
Written by Cherie Bennett, who adapted the script from her popular book, “Good-bye Best Friend,” the script realistically balances some moments of the teenage actors’ uproariously funny conversations that are infused with emotional adolescent angst and the drudgery of their coping with unfairly serious illnesses that compromise their lives.
Star spends most of her time in the hospital or at Heart House, where she confronts fate with her imagination by surrounding herself with MTV-inspired bodyguard flunkies and “morphing” her dreaded therapy nurse into a pro-wrestler pseudo-attack shark whose appearance is announced with the Jaws theme.
When Star gets a new roommate, a pretty cheerleader named Courtney, ably played by Vera Kibler, this powerful play, serenaded by music by John Lennon and the Beatles, takes the audience vicariously through the characters’ struggles to live life to its fullest. The play captures both the audiences’ hearts and intellects as the girls come to understand each other and, ultimately, themselves. First loves, facing fate, adolescent angst and human flaws — all are present in this play and all were portrayed superbly by the cast.
Some relationships throughout the play are well-known to an audience that attends a high school production. Star and her mother Courtney, played by Camille Garvin, struggle to relate with one another. Star and her first love Jeff Lavine, realistically and humorously portrayed by Aidan Colburn, interact uncomfortably at first only to then share a conversation about whether there is a deity and, if so, why does the deity allow those who are so young to suffer, and also what life really means. A teenage query, “What does geometry have to do with real life?” is interjected, drawing wide applause and hoots from the audience. A teenage girls clique is, of course, mixed into the narrative — it is, after all, a play about teenagers grappling with emotions and identity, albeit in very challenging circumstances. Indeed, much of the mystery and confusion inherent in human relationships was ably portrayed by the talented actors.
After the show, The Malibu Times asked Alex Murphy how she became immersed in Star’s character. She did so under the tutelage of Leonard, whom Murphy characterizes as “so great.”
“Playing Star is a hard role — one has to remember that comedy can get a little flat if you don’t present it correctly,” Murphy said as she reflected on portraying Star. “I became immersed in my character and with the whole field of emotional ranges in the play. I grew more confident when I practiced lines and made changes to my presentation. I told myself ‘Do it! Do it! Do it!’ With Ms. Leonard’s help, I pulled it off!”
At one point in the play, Star declares, “Well, I am not average – I am extraordinary!” On a cold November evening the young thespians performing the play at MHS, and all of the crew in back of the stage, evinced that the theater program at the school; Bridgette Leonard, the director of the production and a theater arts instructor at the school; Ed and Molly Murphy who designed the set; the musicians; and the entire production, lighting, sound, prop and costume crew teams are also extraordinary! Bravo!