On Saturday evening, students eagerly filed into TF Green Hall, hoping to catch a showing of one of Something On The Green’s 24-hour plays — which are written, cast, directed and performed within a single 24-hour period.
This year’s iteration consisted of five short plays, all of which were inane in the best way.
The 75-minute show started with “Super Odd, This Group: God Save the Freaks!” directed by Ellen Chen ’29 and written by Fiona Mathews ’26, Georgia Turman ’26, Olivia Rodriguez ’26 and Liliana Greyf ’26, a former Herald senior staff writer.
The play stars three “freaks” — Eek (Alice Cannon ’26), DJ FREAKALOT (Jack Lipsey ’28) and Pi Boy (Noah Martinez ’27) — all trying to win first place at a freak show by showcasing their unusual skills. Between Eek’s mysterious German accent that only appears while juggling and DJ FREAKALOT’s werewolf tendencies, the show had something for everyone.
The play somehow took an even sillier turn when the trio accidentally summoned the Freak Oracle (Mar Falcon ’26) who had a different — and more sexual — approach to the word “freaky.”
But with well-timed jokes at every turn, and the vague insinuation that everyone in the audience is also a freak (or at least the people who do slam poetry), the first play was a lighthearted and highly entertaining commentary on what society deems acceptable.
The second show, titled, “Shame on them. Gag!” was written by Ilan Brusso ’27 and Alexa Burton ’28 and directed by Zane Elinson ’28. The show follows three young women in ancient Greece, the Vestal Virgins, as they (try to) avoid male temptation. It opens with the introduction of the Virgins’ newest recruit, Anya Anya (Noa Saviano ’29), as she joins Sexta (Daisy Fallon ’28) and Horatia (Avery Liu ’26) in their lifetime of virginity.
The play revolves around one central premise: The virgins must tend to a flame at all times and cannot let it go out because it was a gift from the gods — a reference to the Vestal Virgins of ancient Rome. The play, chock-full of silly references, culminated in would-be womanizer Checkhov (J.D. Gorman ’26) being burned alive. Gorman’s facial expressions throughout were priceless.
The third show, “The Secret of the Garage,” written by Evelyn Anderson ’26 and Corinne Adams ’28 and directed by Chloe Nevas ’26, followed a married couple, Bert (Zoë Espiritu ’29) and Ernie (Raya Gupta ’29), debating whether to turn their garage into an in-law suite or an above-ground sex dungeon.
The performance by the Garage Goddess (Georgia Gray ’29) stood out as the play’s shining point. Her acting was one of the highlights of the evening, with well-timed facial expressions that were, at times, more entertaining to watch than the words were to listen to. The play was most memorable when Gray was given the opportunity to lean into her inner absurdity.
The following play, “Sinners on the Gondola,” had the most cohesive plot of the night. Written by Tatsuya King ’27 and Gunner Peterson ’27 and directed by Michael Harris ’29, the show revolved around a magic typewriter that can compel actors to perform the scripts written on it.
Starring a playwright named Sarah (Jamie Nguyen ’27) and a cast of three actors, Mike (Evan Hamaoka ’28), Beatrice (Lexie Cohen ’28) and Malcolum (Eran Sanderatne ’29), the farcical play toys with the fourth wall and allows the audience an intimate glimpse into the well-developed personalities on stage. One moment, where one actor took over the magic typewriter and used it to make two other characters reenact a sex scene between his divorced parents, was especially notable.
The last show, “Sassy Old Time Genius: The Allegory of The Rave,” was the cherry on top of a hilarious evening. Written by Maria Gomberg ’26, Annabel Richards ’26 and Skylar Walters ’26 and directed by Charlie Fitzgerald ’28, the play was a comedic twist on Plato’s allegory of the cave, where Plato (Eliot Waldvogel ’29) is a gay DJ who engages in BDSM.
The play stars two Tiktok-ified Athenian women — Addisonia Reae (Acadia Phillips ’28) and Mackenzodite (Helen Hen ’29) — as they follow their friend Alexander “Xander” (Joshua Williamson ’27) to a rave in the cave of his situationship, Plato.
Complete with references to Marx and thought-provoking questions about reality, the final play seemed truly at home in a place like Brown. One of the best — albeit unintentional — parts of the show came when the rave music failed to start due to technical difficulties, forcing the actors to dance very chaotically in complete silence.
The five-play set left audiences entertained, perplexed and a little bit concerned about the sheer number of sex jokes that the writers included. Hopefully, no one’s parents were in attendance.
Talia LeVine is a section editor covering arts and culture. They study Political Science and Visual Art with a focus on photography. In their free time, they can be found drinking copious amounts of coffee.
