Kenny Tran

Pluto Was A Planet Review

This weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing my peers perform in Pluto Was A

Planet by Laura Jacqmin performed at Illinois Wesleyan University and directed by

Caitlyn McManus. The show finds its strength at the university in which the majority of

the audience can personally relate to the characters. Even the audience not currently in

school can find a connection to the struggle of the characters, maybe even more so than

current college aged students. This play questions morality and pits human desire versus

our logic and morality. In that sense, the play finds it audience perfectly on a liberal arts

campus.

The plot revolves around four students at an Ivy League school. Two of these

students, Abe and Cecilia, are a part of a secret society on campus. The other two

students, Eugene and Sabrina, are getting tapped to join the society- this means that

they have a to perform a designated challenge in order to join the society. The conflict

comes in when the challenge requires them to have sex with each other for seven minutes

and film it. Theres an added twist when its revealed that Abe is in love with Sabrina and

Cecilia wants to be with Eugene. The characters spend the play talking about why or why

not they should go through with the challenge. The play moved slowly in the beginning,

and it didnt really pick up for me until the very end. The script itself was entertaining to

me. I really liked the comedic moments, but I felt that the words exchanged between

characters were surface level. The script seemed too smooth and too clean cut for the

situation in which these characters found themselves. I just wished the ending showed us

the closure between Abe and Cecilia. I think that the script lacked a good build into the
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action. The play didnt seem to have much direct conflict until the very ending of the

show. Other than that, I didnt have much problem with the script. I was successfully

pulled into the story, and whenever I was pulled out of it, it wasnt because of the script.

I thought the actors did a fine job with the material they were given. For me,

though, there was one actor who stood out among the others, and that would be Eugene

played by Bucky Emmerling. His performance stood out between all the others actors

onstage, I believe, because it was clear from the very start what he wanted. The others

actors- Hailey Lechelt as Cecilia, Jenia Head as Sabrina, and Dean Carlson as Abe- all

wanted something, but I wasnt necessarily convinced. There were loud voices and sordid

looks, but I didnt get the feeling that Abe wanted Jenia that badly. I never got the feeling

that Cecilia was doing everything possible in her power to get Abe. But with Eugene, I

felt that I knew exactly what he wanted, and I could feel that desire getting stronger

throughout the course of the play. I could believe the struggle that they all face, but I

personally find it difficult to believe that any society or group would force sex upon two

people and there be two people who are genuinely thinking about it for their futures. The

circumstances make it more believable, but I still cant fathom the situation. In terms of

direction, I thought it was an interesting challenge to have two present scenes on stage

whilst bringing into focus one over the other. In this respect, I think the direction lacked. I

found myself constantly watching Eugene, no matter which scene he was in. His acting

was so developed and interesting, but it drew me away from the opposite scene, and I

think thats a director issue. It distracted from the story and made me a bit confused later.

Another director choice that really confused me, that also lines up with design elements is
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the fourth wall work. In the set, there are two windows above the actors, painting the

picture of a basement. The actors always face towards the audience and talk out, but I

didnt understand why everyone was talking to the wall. Even in the bathroom, characters

would look outwards, and I would constantly find myself thinking about why is anyone

talking to the wall, and whats so interesting about the wall that all the characters find

themselves looking at it constantly. I thought at the beginning whenever the characters

were in the living room and talking, I couldnt tell what was being heard by Sabrina and

Eugene and what couldnt be heard. I think there needed to be more work done about the

world the story resides in, because the actors and characters seemed to be playing with

different rules. The story wasnt necessarily difficult to understand, but it would have

been clearer if the world was clarified.

The design elements were fairly minimal, it seemed. The set design helped set up

the environment very well. The trash on the ground helped set up the environment. I

think the space was used well by the actors, especially given the constrictions of the

space and audience. In terms of lights, I didnt think that it was effective in drawing focus

towards another scene. When there was a scene in one half of the set, the other half of the

set was still lit. This was a problem whenever the non-focus scene had actors in it still

acting, in which it would draw focus away from the active scene. It also held problems

whenever the other part of the set was empty. There seemed to be three light settings- half

1, half 2, and full set. There wasnt much isolation at all, even when only one character

was monologuing and alone. I didnt pay much attention to sound. It was just used

mostly, I remember, for a phone cue, and the song at the end of the show. I didnt think it
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added much or retracted from the piece. The costumes were pretty telling of each

character, but I honestly didnt think very much about t it.

In my opinion, it was an interesting show with a topical message for this

audience. I was drawn into the story, but I wasnt thoroughly convinced by the elements

of the show of the world that this story lives in. I think there could have been more done

in the planning and design to ensure that all elements of the play tied together to tell the

same story at the same time. I wasnt sure that everyone involved knew which was the

most important aspect of the show or the story that wanted to be told. I enjoyed it,

though, and Im proud of my peers!