Forbidden Planet Productions opened their production of “Company” this past weekend. The show was directed by Danny Dunitz and sold out each night. The cast and audience were both thrilled with the show and thought it was successful.
Though the show may have been Dunitz’s first time directing a full show, the cast saw him as a natural. “His vision is fantastic and he’s the best director for the show,” said actor Richard Shiavone.
While the show could be seen as a challenging one, the group thrived off the environment. “It was an environment where we were able to experiment with different things and try and flex our acting muscles as much or as little as we wanted to really discover our characters,” said actor Dillon Lewis.
The musical is about a 35-year old bachelor who invites all his married friends to his apartment in New York. Each of the married couple teaches him something about love and marriage and he learns more about himself throughout the show.
The messages are marriage, relationships, opportunities and commitment. The characters were constantly fighting over the question of should he get married or not?
“Playwright Steven Sondheim really makes it difficult to determine if the show is pro or anti-marriage,” said Lewis. “At the end, we find out is it pro-marriage because Bobby decides that yes, we need someone else in our lives.”
This show was written in 1970s and tells audience about the psychological preparation for a human being to get married. “I think it’s about not only learning to love them but to love yourself, you can fully appreciate that feeling of going through the daily process of love and learning how to love,” said actress Samantha Gordon.
The audience was energetic and enjoyed the versatile show. This show is really great for student audience not only because it’s wicked funny but the idea of marriage can be related to the ideas of commitment and relationships
“To a certain extent it’s hard to produce a play like this in school because none of us have been married,” said actor Kevin Koenitzer. “But in the end, you can see how the show relates to all of our everyday relationships and commitments.”
While each of the character’s friends tries to tell him what loves means to them, he has to discover it for himself. “All of us can connect to that,” said Dunitz. “We have to discover what love means and not have someone tell us how to love.”