Student Play Brings Down the House

Story posted March 10, 2000

You know you’ve had those conversations. And if you haven’t had them, you’ve heard them. That’s the beauty of "Stuck in the Middle," the play written and directed by Jeffrey Gilberg ’00 for a senior honors project and shown at the March 10 Common Hour to an overflow crowd at Kresge Auditorium.

The play is a hysterical portrayal of life at Bowdoin through the eyes of Gilberg (starring as Spencer) and his three roommates. Each scene is separated by a brief monologue from Spencer, who expands on the more serious themes of taking risks, following your heart and, in the end, failing.

The action, which takes place entirely in their litter-strewn living room, opens with a philosophical debate about the relative merits of drinking urine.

Brenner (Craig Giammona ’02) asks his roommates if they would drink a cup of urine for $1,000. That inspires a barrage of questions, the answers to which are necessary to give the issue the serious consideration it deserves: "How much urine are we talking about here?" "Is it mine or somebody else’s?" "Could I mix it with some bad beer?"

In another exchange, O’Neil, played by Christopher Houston ’00, can’t convince Spencer to come with them to the Buck Booty Naked Party. He can’t convince him to do much of anything because Spencer always has work to do. Spencer is annoyed that no matter how hard he works, there's always more he could be doing, but his roommates don’t seem to do anything. O’Neil’s take on schoolwork? "Work just gets done."

As it turns out, Brenner is the only person to show up naked at the Buck Booty Naked Party. Though Brenner is unfazed by the faux pas, it helps to prove Rozelli’s heart-felt philosophy: "No matter where you go, no matter what you do, sh-- happens. Name a time when sh-- doesn’t happen."

They can’t.

But we’ve learned from another conversation that Rozelli, played by Ryan Walsh-Martel ’03, also thinks it would be cool to be a 70-year-old virgin, so it’s hard to take him too seriously.

Meanwhile, Spencer is on his way to becoming that "cool" 70-year-old. While his friends are at the party, Kimmy, played by Erin Lyman ’01, comes over to seduce him. Despite the fact that he really likes her, it doesn’t work, and she leaves in frustration.

Sh-- happens.

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