The history of our great nation is filled with stories of miniature soldiers, pot-smoking politicians and inflatable penises.

Or at least that’s how ‘The Complete History of America (Abridged)’ tells it.

Presented by the Black Box Players, the play will run through Oct. 29 in the Black Box Theater at Syracuse Stage.

Written by Adam Long, Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, this fast-paced comedy features a cast of public school kids and their teacher telling a condensed history of the United States. The history they tell, however, is anything but a textbook. Hilarious inaccuracies and commentary put a new spin on America’s past. 

First-time director Marcelo Pereira, a senior acting major, led the small cast of Syracuse students in this zany comedy. Before the play began, the cast members approached the audience and introduced themselves while acting out their characters — a wise choice on Pereira’s part. It prepared the audience for later interaction with the actors and the show’s informal ambiance.

However, Pereira’s inexperience was evident through some scenes that felt messy and hard to follow. In one such scene, actors entered and exited the stage quickly. Speaking a single line as they rushed in and out, the performers made it difficult for the audience to keep up. Despite the disjointed scene, the talent and energy of the cast and the strength of the script made the overall show a success.

The characters embodied basic high school stereotypes: a nerd, a jock, a stoner, a ghetto diva, a ditsy good girl and their teacher. The cast’s standouts, senior acting major Liz Bennett and sophomore acting major Robert Axelrod, played the teacher and the nerd, respectively. Both performed with charisma and a great sense of comedic timing.

It was impossible not to laugh when Axelrod took the stage. Costumed in tiny shorts and suspenders, his character opened the show by lip-syncing to a recording of Mariah Carey singing the national anthem. He danced around in a blonde wig and rapidly did splits a number of times throughout the show. The actor’s incredibly tall frame made his displays of flexibility all the more hilarious.

Like any good nerd, Axelrod constantly sucked up to the teacher, Bennett, whose character was like Ms. Frizzle of ‘The Magic School Bus,’ only crazier. Whether madly pounding away at the classroom piano or impersonating Adolf Hitler, Bennett’s crazed teaching was hysterical.

In another scene, Bennett and Axelrod portrayed Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci and his wife, both actors playing the role opposite of their gender. Later on, senior acting major Milly Millhauser and sophomore acting major Kristal Carter acted out a human slideshow of the American Civil War. At the conclusion of the show, the cast answered questions from the audience about bits of history they left out. The cast’s responses were amusingly half true. Finally, the show wrapped up with a speedy telling of the United States’ historical highlights in reverse, including Monica Lewinsky ‘going up’ on former President Bill Clinton.

After offering up a show of historical inaccuracies and half-truths, the cast took a moment to take education in the real world seriously. In the program, director Pereira wrote:

‘The sad truth however is that American students are not all performing to their fullest potential.’

He continued by challenging:

‘Are we going to do something about this or will we continue to ask the same question former President Bush once asked, ‘Is our children learning?”

Finally, after the cast took their bows, they collected donations from the audience for the Open Hand Theater, an organization that supports the arts in public schools.

Overall, ‘The Complete History of America (Abridged)’ had great energy. The actors clearly enjoyed performing, which gave life to the whole show. Though some scenes were hectic and hard to follow, the show generally flowed well. Most importantly, the show was hilarious. The cast made an already funny play even better with its exceptional talent and sense of humor.

If only American History 101 was as entertaining.

Published on October 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ian: insimonc@syr.edu