Two years ago I saw Anything Goes performed by my school’s drama club. It was reminiscent of Andy Warhol french-kissing Satan*, so needless to say I was put off theater for a while. Then, on June 20th, I saw a series of one-act plays that gave me hope.

EST: Marathon (Series B) shown at The Ensemble Studio Theatre is a series of 5 one-act plays with great acting that anyone can laugh or cry with. Some of them make us notice how boring our own lives are and others make us thankful for that same boring life.

The first play, Jill and Carol, is about two women who have been friends for the past twenty years. After some pointless banter, Carol gets around to asking Jill whether she has ever had sex with a girl. Awkward. This is all leading up to the two friends kissing each other on the lips completely out of the blue. The first play ends with an unexpected plot twist.

Next up is Blood from a Stoner. This one features a casual lunch at a diner in which a father and daughter exchange words both loud and angry, and subtle and sarcastic. Yes this isn’t the nicest relationship under the sun, but they have to try. Things really start to get interesting when the father bumps into the waiter, slips, falls, starts bleeding and becomes hysterical. After that, lunch goes down hill. We all learn a little something from the great acting and interesting plot in this simple yet entertaining play.

That was a tough act to follow, but the next one puts the comedy back into the quintessential story of office politics. This play is a story of five people who set out to make a children’s show about a duck, hence the title of the play, Little Duck. When one of them tries to make a change, others get upset and sparks start to fly. In the end they all kiss and make up (literally). With comedy and kisses for all, this play is worth a promotion.

The fourth one, Daughter, is a story about a girl named Monique who joins the military. Unfortunately, after she comes back she gets into an accident and her face is horribly mutilated. Her mother keeps encouraging her to never give up hope, but it’s hard when all they can do is put their hands together and pray. The scenes of the mother and daughter together make you want to cry along.

The last play was a tale you expect from an old west legend. Sundance starts out in a bar with two cowboys talking about their various reasons for killing people. After a brief conversation a guy named Sundance walks in and shoots them. His cool demeanor and heartlessness terrify everyone. Each one of them makes a long speech trying to plead for their life or about Marxism and revolution. Go figure.

The final image of the performance is Sundance walking out the door leaving a room full of corpses. The perfect finale for an afternoon at the theatre.

* [Ed.’s Note: There’s a couple of good songs in that show — just saying]