THEATRE REVIEW: ‘The Miss Firecracker Contest’ leaves something to be desired
Grade: C+
“The Miss Firecracker Contest” had a nice set and fine acting, but the story itself was sluggish, long and boring.
As I suffered through some painfully slow scenes, I thought just about any theater major could have written a better play than Beth Henley, who constructed this narrative.
While Henley won the Pulitzer Prize for another of her plays, at times, I was sure even I could create a better story.
An hour into the production, when the first scene change took place, the show had introduced a whopping four characters – Carnelle, her cousins Delmount and Elaine and her seamstress Popeye – and told us little except their personalities.
While I’ll be the first to say character development is important to a story, entire films have told their tales in the time it took this play to develop four characters.
The plot is that Carnelle, an orphan who has seen the deaths of her parents, aunt and uncle, enters a beauty contest because she wants to “leave Brookhaven in a blaze of glory.”
That is it. The audience never actually sees the pageant, and the outcome doesn’t really matter. Kristin Leigh Clement did a respectable job in the role, but no actress could make me care much whether or not Carnelle won her pageant because it just isn’t interesting.
Most of the subplots are as equally simplistic and lame as the main story.
The story of Elaine is confusing and pointless at best. She is 25 and has a rich husband and two sons. But she visits Brookhaven intending to leave her family. Why or for what, we as an audience don’t know.
The only thing we know of her husband is that he calls and sends her roses. There is no talk of abuse or trouble in the marriage, yet, she wants to divorce him and leave her children, and her brother Delmount is thrilled at that idea.
Elaine, a former Miss Firecracker, has a shallow character who thinks her beauty is a trial. “It’s such a burden to live up to a beautiful face,” she says dramatically.
Her story is a confusing soap opera that serves no purpose. Its resolution is that she decides to return to her family after she has been “wild” for a night with another man.
Then there is Mac Sam. He and Carnelle were formally lovers, and he is sick with some disease that Carnelle also had. Except she had shots and was cured, and he goes around coughing up blood.
Again, I was wondering what the point of his character is supposed to be. Mac Sam isn’t developed, but he is in too much of the story for the audience to not try to form some sort of feeling about him.
Yet, I came up blank because the story doesn’t tell me enough about him, and what little it does say makes him look like a moron.
I only liked one part of the story, and that was the subplot of Delmount and Popeye. She likes him before she even meets him, and he gradually grows to love her. They finally share a kiss at the very end of the production.
What kept me watching this play, besides the fact that I was reviewing it, was that the students did a great job with a lame story. While there were a few missed lines, the acting was excellent, and the southern accents were usually realistic.
Page Petrucka was a perfect Popeye, and her character was my favorite. She hasn’t had an easy life, but she is an optimist and makes do with what life throws at her.
She got her nickname as a child. Her brother threw gravel in her eyes and then maliciously gave her eardrops to put in her wounds.
“The fortunate part is I can now hear voices through my eyes,” she says. “Every now and then, I hear them laughin’ and carryin’ on.”
The set looked believable and was well-constructed, and the lighting and sound were fine. Unfortunately, the hard work and talent of the students didn’t quite make this play enjoyable.
“The Miss Firecracker Contest” runs Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Morgan Theatre. Tickets are free for students.
Katrina Brainard is a senior studying print journalism. Comments can be sent to kcartwright@cc.usu.edu.
Popeye (Page Petrucka) looks at fabric with Carnelle (Kristin Clement) for her costume for the Miss Firecracker Pageant while her cousin Elaine (Heather Hunsaker) sends enticing looks toward Mac Sam (Lanny Langston)while Delmount (Christian Shiverdecker) stares at Popeye (Page Petrucka.
Delmount (Christian Shiverdecker) and Mac Sam (Lanny Langston) have an argument.
Carnelle (Kristin Clement) yells at her cousin Elaine (Heather Hunsaker) for not letting her wear Elaine’s red formal dress for the Miss Firecracker Pageant. (Photos by Scott Davis)