A night of scares, laughs

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Local News

February 28, 2019 - 11:55 AM

Hayden Hermann with a question.

There are times when a small-town reporter, reviewing a local theatrical event, is obligated, out of kindness, to fudge the truth, to conceal from the reading public the production?s major blemishes and emphasize instead what a good job! everyone did or how great the costumes looked. 

But then, very occasionally, you?re blown away.

The Allen Community College Theatre Department?s production of Nic Olson?s ?Five Short Plays to Frighten and Amuse,? an anthology of student-directed one-acts, is so jam-packed with original talent that by simply choosing to attend the show ? which runs Thursday-Saturday ? you are automatically improving your chances at happiness.

Of course it helps if you have a taste for the macabre. Each brief comedy is built around some aspect of the lurid extreme ? brain-eating zombies, murderous bachelorettes, awakened ghosts ? but the verbal surface of each short piece vibrates with wit and insight.

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