By: Jordan Baney and Natalie Brown
This year, Camp Hill put on Something Wicked This Way Comes, a play about two 13-year old best friends, Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, and the struggles that occur when a traveling death carnival comes to their small town in Illinois, two days before Halloween. The carnival swiftly takes over the town and with it, the residents. When we attended on opening night, there were several actors whose portrayals stood out as especially effective and compelling. One was Jim Nightshade, who quickly succumbed to the carnival due to his carefree spirit and curiosity. Jim was played by Owen Connelly, who did an amazing job bringing this agitating character to life. The whole play we were annoyed and bothered by Jim’s lack of premonition and attitude towards the situation at hand, which we thought was exactly how that character should come across. Jim foils his friend Will, who is much more observant and serious about what was happening to the town. Will was played by Elliot Stabler, who completely took on the character and made it seem so natural. These two characters carried an unbreakable, almost brotherly bond, despite disagreeing with one another for most of the play. Watching over the two boys was the character that stood out to us the most: Mr. Halloway (Will’s father). Mr. Halloway, played by Gus Eberlein, evolved the most as a character as the play progressed. He was first presented as a non vital figure, who appeared in only the background. Mr. Halloway just wanted to be young again like his son, so we expected him to quickly fall into the hands of the carnival, who had a machine able to digress and/or progress the aging process. However this was far from the case, considering he was the one who saved the whole town. Gus did an excellent job presenting Mr. Halloway as a dynamic character, who gradually grew as the play went on. He changed the way he presented himself on stage by starting off reserved, especially when talking to his son, then becoming more confident as the show went on. Overall, the play was well executed, and much of this was due to the great work of these actors in the roles given to them. Characters evolved and relationships grew in different ways between them, which is the foundation of a truly good and skillfully carried out play. So congratulations and kudos to these three actors and the rest of the cast of Something Wicked This Way Comes. You all performed in and contributed to an amazing show.
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