Dead Man’s Cellphone A Review of TheaterCNU’s final show

FIONA SULLIVAN FIONA.SULLIVAN.20@CNU.EDU

This past weekend, TheaterCNU performed their last show of the 22-23 season with the play Dead Man’s Cellphone by Sarah Ruhl.

A synopsis from the Department of Theater and Dance’s website describes the play as such:

“An incessantly ringing cell phone in a quiet café. A stranger at the next table who has had enough. And a dead man – with a lot of unfinished business. The adventure begins when Jean answers “Hello?” in this quirky modern comedy by MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient and Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl. The play takes us on the odyssey of a woman forced to confront her assumptions about morality, redemption, and the need to connect in a technologically-obsessed world.”

This preview obviously leaves much to be interpreted and going to see the play with zero expectations or any knowledge is truly the best way to experience the story, though the ending still felt very confusing. The main theme of the play is how social media and technology have the ability to unite and isolate society in the modern age.

Jean, played by Audrey Shoop, is the one who discovers Gordon dead at a cafe and proceeds to hold on to his cellphone throughout the entirety of the play and meet his family and mistress, all while making up lies about her relationship with Gordon, how he died, and how he felt towards his family. Obviously, this leads to chaos and hilarity but also recognizes the addiction that comes from technology and wanting to be connected with people as Jean had never had a cellphone before or people that truly cared for her.

Junior Audrey Shoop had an absolute standout performance and embraced the endearing awkwardness that Jean presents so much while also displaying raw emotion in such a truthful way that the audience can’t help but root for Jean. Shoop also had many impressive monologues and though it was often just them on stage talking, the energy never stopped flowing and Shoop moved the plot in an impressive, forceful direction.

Other standout performances include Kevin Brunette as Gordon and Alexandra Lagos as Mrs. Gottlieb, Gordon’s mother. Though Brunette doesn’t speak throughout the entire first act and is on stage several times acting dead, he blows the audience away with a fifteen monologue at the beginning of Act II that never seems stagnant and the sardonic humor he utilizes as Gordon is extremely effective.

Mrs. Gottlieb, on the other hand, is a dramatic, overbearing mother who doesn’t seem to care about much but herself until it is revealed at the end that she is the person that Gordon loved the most. It could be said that Lagos’s performance easily made the show and her reactions and facial expressions were priceless with the audience constantly laughing.

Overall, this was the perfect play to finish the 22-23 season for TheaterCNU which is made even more exciting by the fact that this play wasn’t even originally supposed to be produced at CNU. The characters were all over the top while still worthy to root for and the plot left the audience in reflection and curiosity which is how shows should always leave their audience.

Believe it or not, this is an actual relationship that could be progressing each day. Papparazzi had been spotting them for a while now with Jenner’s car being spotted at Chalamet’s home and seeing them on dates according to Buzzfeed. However, these were all mostly rumors and most people refused to acknowledge that they could be an item.

However, everything changed when US Weekly published a story that had a source speak on the two celebrities. “Timothee is a total gentleman and treats [Kylie] with respect. He’s very charming and he makes her laugh, and he’s easy to talk to. Although he may not seem like her type, they have really good chemistry,” the source claimed.

According to Buzzfeed, the two met through Jenner’s sister Kendall who was already friends with Chalamet which made the relationship easier to form. Entertainment Tonight offcially confirmed the couple on April 17 where another source stated the following: “They are keeping things casual at this point. It’s been really fun for her because it feels a lot different than her past relationships. She’s having a lot of fun.”

While it may seem like things are going well for Jenner and Chalamet, Twitter had a lot of different thoughts. One user made a joke and tweeted “The KarJenners are really collecting skinny white boys like Pokemon.” Another made a reference to CHalamet’s Wonka movie that’s supposed to be releasing in theaters soon.

“The only Kylie x Timmy scenario that makes sense is if she hired him to dress up as Willy Wonka for Stormi’s chocolate factory themed bday like let’s bfr.”

While they still haven’t made their relationship official in public yet, it’s only a matter of time and who knows, maybe Timothee Chalamet will be spotted on an episode of The Kardashians in the near future.