Rocky Horror Show

The Texas State University Department of Theatre and Dance has recently been performing The Rocky Horror Show written by Richard O'Brien and directed by Jay Jennings. The play ran from November seventh through the eleventh, and also November fourteenth through the eighteenth all at seven thirty in the evening. This play was like watching someone fall down the stairs, you want to laugh but at the same time it's too awkward to laugh. The performance started with the narrator teaching the audience how to interact during the show. The play actually began with a song and a video flashback of Brad and Janet's friend's wedding. Brad and Janet, a young couple in love, decide they want to tie the knot as well. While driving they get a flat tire and decide to walk to a castle they saw a few miles back to ask to use a phone. When they arrived at the castle they met up with some strange creatures that are willing to do everything but help them with their car trouble. After spending a few minutes in the castle they realized that it was not going to be an ordinary night.

This extremely odd performance displays a combination of farce and tragedy. I feel it is a combination of farce and tragedy because tragedy requires that there be a leading character that meets defeat and also evokes fear and pity and farce creates an improbable situation and then proceeds logically. This play consisted of all of these factors.

This play was chosen this year to fit into the universities common experience, protest and dissent because it displays different views of sexuality and women's rights.

The set fit both the inside and outside scenes. For the outside scenes in the back corner of the stage there was creepy tree and for the inside scenes there was a curved staircase. On the back wall of the stage there was a screen used throughout the play to show scenes previously recorded and was also used to set the mood, by the use of silhouettes and