The audience clapped their hands, stomped their feet, and raised their voices into a thunderous applause under the direction and instruction of Eliot Fisher ’05. Fisher was training the audience for their interactive role in “The Outlaw Barber of Living Proof,” a musical western melodrama written by, directed by, and featuring Fisher himself on the piano.
After perfecting their thunderous applause, the audience continued to participate throughout the show: they encouraged the good guys, heckled the bad guys, and even shouted out advice and insults to all actors.
“I was so surprised that people could get so into it, but then I soon found myself to be one of those people,” said audience member Lila Babb ’07.
Set in 1868 in Living Proof, New Mexico, Fisher’s melodrama chronicles love and adventure in a town full of outlaws and hidden secrets. In a town of loveable outlaws- such as Belle Starr (Liz Thaler ’05), an infamous outlaw disguised as the town barber, and the Sagebrush Kid (Dan Janvey ’06), a forgetful Robin Hood-type do-gooder- Fisher’s malicious villain ironically falls on the right side of the law.
Played by Chris White ’06, Earnest P. Shamwell is trying to track down Belle Starr in response to a ‘Wanted’ poster, dead or alive. Owner of the New York Times, Shamwell pretends to be a professor from Yale University, earning even more disdain and resentment from the Wesleyan audience.
“Yale sucks!” one audience member called out at one point during the Friday evening performance. Breaking away from the script for a moment of improvisation White quickly retorted, “Wesleyan’s gay!” to the audience’s amusement. Such comments allowed each performance of the melodrama to be different, with its own nuances and moments of inspiration.
Throughout the show, the audience enjoyed taunting Shamwell’s evil character by booing, hissing, and shooting him with bullets from their six shooters- jumbo sized marshmallows handed out to the audience before the show.
In addition to heckling Shamwell, the audience applied their newfound thunderous clapping skills to encourage and support the unsure Sagebrush Kid in his heroic attempts. The Sagebrush kid donned a hot pink bandanna with a Mardi Gras mask for eyes to conceal his true identity.
The audience garnered heartfelt sighs for the poor, but ebullient, orphan Annie played by Dana Raviv ’06. An aspiring barber, Annie works as a dancer, dancing in a style that looked more like flailing limbs shaking bodies. Annie brought the elements of romance and a damsel-in-distress to the melodrama with her passionate love for the Sagebrush Kid, despite being confused about his true identity.
Often the characters on stage would freeze in time, allowing one of the actors to speak aside to the audience. With their back to their co-actors, turning towards the audience and covering their mouth with their hands, these actors would think out loud offering glimpses into their thoughts and allowing the audience to begin to see dramatic irony. Once even, Belle Starr spoke aside on one side of the stage and received a cross stage response from her brother Jack Starr, played by Owen Albin ’07.
In the character of Pete, the barber-shop pianist, Fisher sat on stage continuously playing the piano in the background. The music included themes for each character, enhancements for the mood and action, and provided accompaniment for when actors would break into song. Each actor had his own solo, showcasing the talent of each performer in addition to the overall, intentional comedic cheesiness of the show.
After the chase and deception concludes, “Outlaw Barber” fittingly ended with a melodramatic happily-ever-after ending. As in Shakespeare or Wilde or any of the great comedic dramatists, Fisher concluded his with all secrets revealed, two new couples, a reunion of an orphan and a mother, and a general state of well-being in Living Proof.
“Eliot Fisher’s ‘Outlaw Barber,’ like Howard Hawks’ ‘Rio Bravo,’ stayed true to the spirit of the Western, while displaying originality that shows a true knowledge of the genre form,” said Willie Gould ’06, a knowledgeable student of Professor of American Studies Richard Slotkin’s Westerns class.
Eliot Fisher truly is a man who knows Westerns. I guess a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,“ Gould added.
A Second Stage production, ”The Outlaw Barber of Living Proof“ ran last weekend, April 1-3, at Psi Upsilon.
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