You know the engineers, those crazy drunken folk with the hard hats? Well, they have this annual musical-sketch-comedy revue deal that they call Skule™ Nite.
At first glance, the idea of drunk men banging pots might seem as fun as a curbstomp to the teeth.
Except this curbstomp has been gracing the stage of Hart House Theatre for over eighty years now and tickets get snapped up like free condoms at your high school formal. It is, in fact, (trumpets, please) an institution.
All this means, of course, is that each successive year has an ever-growing reputation to live up to. So how did this year’s show deal with the pressure of all that tradition? With giant, singing llama heads. That’s how.
Of course, with so many engineers behind the scenes, you knew there’d be some goddamn good props (plus the odd calculus or physics joke).
That these didn’t steal the show does credit to director Mike Wood and producer Tiffany Conroy. What really makes the show is the assorted weirdos that are annually dredged up from the darkest corners of Sandford Fleming and placed on stage.
Even the most mangled accent or telegraphed punchline becomes oddly endearing when delivered with the bravado this bunch possesses.
Of note was Laura Edwards, whose terrifying cuteness wrings laughter out of you almost against your will. And Eric Moncrieff’s recurring Batman role showcases the poignancy of a superhero with no actual superpowers (existentialism, anyone?). And Nazim Hussein’s hapless blind-date victim inspires newfound sympathy for wide-eyed dorks everywhere.
Plus, everyone’s inner three-year-old owes a big thank-you to costuming manager Caitlyn Paget. Pretty colours and sparkles abounded (and, incidentally, looked way cool through the red-and-blue glasses that were part of this year’s 3-D theme).
If there were some kind of award for best teenage space-alien slut getup in a engineering musical, she’d be a shoo-in.
What I saw was the dress rehearsal, so cues and such were still a bit ragged. But I hear successive performances were more polished—as polished as engineers get with their theatre. Afterall, this ain’t George Bernard Shaw sissy stuff. As such, it’s actually entertaining.
