*Photos from front page by Rys Logan

Men in their underwear, tea parties, dildos and a blurred line between imagination and reality are what the audience experienced when it saw the student produced play “Mr. Marmalade.”  The play premiered to a packed audience in the Fairhaven Auditorium May 10 and 11; was the first play in 10 years to be premiered by Fairhaven Theater.  

“Mr. Marmalade” is a black comedy with an overall theme of growing up for both children and adults.  It was written by Noah Haidle and had its world premiere by South Coast Repertory in California in 2004.  

The play focuses on 4-year-old girl named Lucy who creates imaginary friends out of loneliness. She is left at home all day by a single mother and an absentee babysitter with nothing but the TV and her imagination to occupy her time.  The cure for her loneliness comes in the form of the imaginary Mr. Marmalade, a too-busy, cocaine-addicted business man who acts as her boyfriend for the majority of the play.  

The heroine deals with adult-like situations through a child’s eyes but with an adult’s mentality, said Western sophomore and Mr. Marmalade actor Vid Francis.  The character of Mr.

Marmalade is the sum of her experiences of watching TV, having a babysitter and mother bring home strange men, and a father who left her when she was young.  

“There’s a really well-focused dichotomy of youthful innocence and adult corruption,” Francis said.  “It’s very much a roller coaster emotionally and verbally; it’s a very emotionally-charged play.”

An example of the interchange between adult imagination to youthful fantasy is when Mr. Marmalade comes to play with Lucy while drunk and high and eventually beats her.  It distinguishes a aggressive male character with a young passive female character and invokes a kind of a dissonant feeling of disdain, Francis said.  Too offset the darkness, the scene is followed by two new upbeat, loveable and funny imaginary friends of Larry, Lucy’s real-life friend.  

Fairhaven Theater can be more challenging because the one element that main campus theater has that Fairhaven Theater does not is the means for a bigger budget, said Western freshman and director Mario Orallo-Molinaro.

“You have to be motivated and you have to be willing to spend some of your own money, so it’s more grass rootsy than main campus is,” Orallo-Molinaro said.

“Mr. Marmalade” was produced on the budget of $400, and most of it came from the directors’ pocket,  Western freshman and assistant director Jimmy Price said.  

“The lack of money adds to the artistic feel because you have to get creative,” Price said.  

The costumes and a majority of the set were loaned from Value Village, the venue came at no cost, and the actors were unpaid.  Most of the budget went to promotions and props, Price said.  

Homes said he believes this new outlet for artists creates more opportunities for actors since the theater departments across the country are scaling back due to budget cuts.  
One reason why this play is being put on is to give more opportunities for actors who want to be in a show because Main Campus Theater is somewhat hard to break into because of the competitiveness, Orallo-Molinaro said.

“[Theater Departments] have been doing less plays, period,” Homes said.  “Reopening this new venue will offer a lot of new possibilities for people.”

The directors, who are both freshmen, said they wanted to start early by getting involved their freshman year and hopefully do a play every year.  They wanted the experience of putting together a play in addition to simply loving theater, Price said.  

Fairhaven Theater is an educational space and a movement established by a group of Fairhaven students and teachers, Homes said.  

Western sophomore and actor Roland Carette-Meyers said he has some ideas of why it has been such a long time since a properly produced play has been done.

“There’s been a lack of energy and care for the theater space.  Plus, there’s so much emphasis on the main campus theater department that people just don’t think of the Fairhaven

Auditorium as a plausible venue,” Carette-Meyers said. “But Fairhaven is really conducive to alternative and more challenging and aggressive modes of theater; it’s just a matter of getting money to maintain the space.”

Fairhaven Theater is based off of Fairhaven philosophy, which means students discover knowledge on their own through their own passions and activities.  It uses natural form of acting and directing, meaning the experience is much more a community-based effort is part of that experience, said Orallo-Molinaro. For example, instead of the director setting up entrances, exits and actor placement in a scene, the group would do it together.   
Orallo-Molinaro said the play is a good example of following Fairhaven philosophy because the philosophy is all about looking at a something, going deeper and critiquing it. He had a strong reaction when he first picked up the play.  

“I took a look at [Mr. Marmalade] and the first feeling I got was ‘I’m scared’—then I started to love it,” Orallo-Molinaro said.  “‘Mr. Marmalade’ is about looking at a modern society and critiquing it for generations to come.”

Orallo-Molinaro said it was hard to grasp the play because many of the themes, meanings and innuendos behind the play were hard to get.  Once they started working on it consistently, he said the play became second nature.

“[The play’s] definitely got some dark moments in it.  It’s a complete breakdown of relationship and mind, and everything that happens in between all of the pain and darkness,” Homes said.  “It doesn’t leave you in darkness; trust the journey.”

Orallo-Molinaro said working with what he calls “green” actors was fun.  The two directors had to work extremely hard for the new actors to understand their characters but seeing their growth on opening night was huge.  Orallo-Molinaro said it was special for him and Price to see that.  

“Mr. Marmalade” addressed not only physical and substance abuse but child neglect, suicide and growing up too fast.

“It brings up issues that need to be projected, and it presents it in ways that make you think about it,” Price said.  “It doesn’t say ‘this is how we feel.’  It makes you think about it.  These issues will be affecting generations to come.”

Orallo-Molinaro said the play was one of a kind, and said he could not have asked for a better opening day.   

“We started out with nothing, and we made a play like that, and it was free,” said Orallo-Molinaro.  “To a lot of people that was something special, that you can come here and just enjoy theater.”  

Orallo-Molinaro said Mr. Marmalade may be the first play in 10 years but it is inspiring people to get involved with the theater.  “The Tempest” is set to run in June while other plays are already in the works for next year.

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