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The One-Acts closed with Shrew You by Lewis Heniford. But where Words, Words, Words was able to conclude the first round of shows nicely with amusing absurdity and wit, Shrew You put a rather disconcerting end to an all-around good evening. The play centers around Shagsper (freshman Alina Pak) a.k.a. Shakespeare who, recently deceased, has come to a processing room in the spiritual afterlife. The attendant in the room, Mnemosyne (played by freshman Rebecca McGivney with the occasional flash of superb acting), explains to him that Zeus has decreed all men must lose their manhood in the afterlife and revert to a female. Shagspur, abhorred by the prospect, decides to call up a scene from his play Taming of the Shrew which illustrates his point that man is necessary. Petruchio (freshman Mike Alfieri) and Katharine (freshman Amanda Jean Boyles) perform their parts in his play dutifully and Shagspur decides to take the play to Zeus as evidence for his argument. Unfortunately the play's setting and plot were hard to follow, which was due more to the script than any fault of the actors. The play also seemed out of place from the others, as it was longer and required more props. Even a thespian-minded English major acquainted with the ins and outs of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew might have been hard-pressed to make complete sense out of the performance, and your average Hopkins undergraduate BME or political science student stood little chance.

In the end, the freshmen (and all the undergraduates that played a part through directing, producing, set design and tech) put on a good performance. Perhaps a more experienced group of actors could have added a little something more with a keener comedic sense of timing and experience, but that subject is not really what the debate should be about. The debate is whether it was the passionate, albeit brief, mayfly sex or the couch-induced orgasm that spurred more after-theater conversation; a debate that only good theater can provide.

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