On Friday and Saturday, the 21st and 22nd of October, Kent Theatre presented Neil Simon’s play “Rumors.” The play is a “farce” (as the author puts it) that consists of witty dialogue and elaborate humor, and Kent’s performance was met with howling laughter. “The audience laughed so much we [the actors] had trouble keeping a straight face,” said James O’Connor ‘18.

The play is set at a dinner party celebrating the 10th anniversary of Charlie and Myra Brock (not acted), with their friends Ken and Chris Gorman (Michael Pryor ‘18, Antina Yeh ‘18), Lenny and Claire Ganz (Carl Worth ‘17, Lizzie O’Hazo ‘17), Ernie and Cookie Cusack (James O’Connor ‘18, Erica Qin ‘18), and Glenn and Cassie Cooper (Adarsh Kumar ‘18, Raina Kim ‘18), who are later intruded upon by Officers Welch and Pudney (Skyler Do ‘18, Paige Wu ‘18).

When the first two guests, the Gormans, arrive on-stage, Myra and the servants are missing, and Charlie has shot himself in the ear and fallen asleep on Valium. The guests then arrive pair by pair and try to figure out what happened as well as try to get the ‘dinner party’ going (without Charlie, Myra, and the servants) as the guests that arrived before them spin an elaborate tale to ‘protect’ Charlie and Myra and their own selves, creating chaos and confusion, as well as many opportunities for a big laugh. The play culminates where Lenny has to pretend to be Charlie and spins a completely fabricated summary of the incident, and cuts off before the cast can ask the real Charlie to reveal the actual order of events.

The play works overall to question the way we place so much importance in what others think and say (the “rumors” of the title), instead of “the truth.” That central question was explored through many other instances of silly, simple comedy, from puns, cheap jokes, to the confusion caused by Cookie’s name-game and back pain, Glenn’s blatant self-serving attitude, and Ken’s temporary deafness.

There were some complications in bringing the play into being. “We had to perform two weeks earlier due to scheduling conflicts with Mattison Auditorium,” says Mr Stewart, director of Kent Theatre, “But the actors performed very well.”

“We struggled with cues and lines a bit, but I think we did good overall,” says Kumar. The cast consisted of two seniors and mostly juniors, “Whom I’ve never really worked with before,” says Stewart. Many of the actors, however, were close friends, and those that weren’t quickly became closer. “Practicing and performing with a lot of my good friends was very fun,” says Kumar. “I think everyone became closer afterwards, too.”

At the end of the Saturday performance, the cast presented Lizzie O’Hazo and Carl Worth with a thank-you card on stage. “That was very sweet of them,” says Stewart.