By Khalida Sarwari
When Saratoga High School drama student Nastasya Kutuyev started looking around for a play to stage for her senior honors project, she came across a crime comedy by playwright Jack Sharkey and knew right away it was the show she wanted to direct.
“Honestly, Now!” takes place in the 1960s and is about an eccentric wealthy socialite named Carlita (portrayed by sophomore Lea Moustakas) and her adult son, Hector (freshman Mateusz Kranz), who acts like a 12-year-old boy. The two of them decide to throw a party at a hotel on the French Riviera, where they are vacationing.
It is revealed that they are actually jewel thieves and this party is a ruse to steal their guests’ valuables. They plan to have Carlita distract their guests while Hector robs their rooms, but they end up running into complications, and before they know it the police are on to them.
Kutuyev described the play as a comedy and borderline farce.
“There’s definitely a lot of witty banter,” she said. “It’s almost as if Jack Sharkey wrote as many jokes as he could and threw them in there. The characters and show in general are kind of over the top and very ridiculous, but there’s something human and empathetic about all of them so you end up rooting for everyone in the end.”
The eight-member cast includes senior Blake Propach, who plays Sam Clayton, and freshman Katie Sabel, who plays his wife, Marigold. The Claytons are an unhappy couple and guests at the party, along with Holly and Oscar, a pair of farmers from Nebraska who won a trip to the Riviera. They’re portrayed by Saya Sivaram and Zach Grob-Lipkis, both sophomores. Rounding out the cast are Raoul, a French hotel worker (sophomore J.P. Hulme), and Nadine (senior Rachel Hull), a banquet manager who arranges the party.
Rehearsals ran from the end of October through the first week of January.
“The entire process has been a bit of a learning experience,” Kutuyev said. “It’s been interesting working with this cast and putting this show together in kind of a limited amount of time, but I think we’re going to pull it off well.”
Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students. They can be purchased at the door prior to the show. Performances are at 7 p.m. on Jan. 16 and 17 and at 2 p.m. on Jan. 18. The show runs about two hours with intermissions.
Next up for the Saratoga High School drama department is “Cyrano de Bergerac,” directed by drama student Andrew York, Feb. 6-8, followed by the department’s spring musical, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” April 24-May 2. The musical is based on an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens.
For more information about the department’s upcoming shows, visit saratogatheatrearts.org.
