OLIVIA HAHNER
staff writer

“Placebo,” one of many shows in the Fringe Fest lineup this year, had the audience feeling every emotion at once during its run last week at Gannon University’s Schuster Theatre.
The show centers on the life of Louise (Angela Weeks), a doctoral candidate who works at a hospital assisting in a trial of a new drug to improve women’s sexual arousal.
She has been assigned to Mary (Cheyenne Stefano), a housewife who no longer feels the urge to be intimate with her husband.
While helping Mary with her relationship, Louise is struggling in her own relationship.
Louise lives with her boyfriend of seven years, Jonathan (Zachary Hyman).
Throughout the whole storyline, Jonathan only talks about his Pliny opus and his want to quit smoking. This causes many fights among the couple.
During Louise and Jonathan’s relationship break, Louise strikes a friendship and potential relationship with co-worker Tom (Eli Kerr).
As mentioned earlier, “Placebo” is the type of performance that leaves you feeling every emotion; you laugh at Louise and Tom when they intimately moan, you cry with Louise when her mother passes and you feel proud when Louise stands up for herself.
The performance itself was great, and the small cast worked well together. The four are close friends outside of the theater, and their bond showed in their performance.
The scenery accompanying the performance was brightly painted and vividly constructed. It was quite obvious from the quality of the backdrops that the skilled theater techs took many painstaking hours to complete their work.
If “Placebo” was showing for another weekend, I would highly recommend seeing it. I strongly believe this was one of the better performances the Schuster Theatre has showcased. If you missed “Placebo,” make sure to check out the rest of the Fringe Fest before it’s gone.

OLIVIA HAHNER
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