The Departure Lounge

Tuesday evening, I attended the mandatory class performance titled The Departure Lounge. Not knowing what it was about, nor the title until after the performance was all ready over, I had little to no expectations. When walking into the venue, I was surprised to find a small, muggy room with a tiny stage. At that point, I was hardly anticipating the play and thought that it was going to be a long 90 minutes.  

However, within the first few minutes, despite my original assumptions, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself thoroughly enjoying it. The fact that the storyline was about 4 guys, all whom were around 18 or 19 years old, sitting in a Ryan Air departure lounge, attempting to catch a plane back to London from Spain after a weeklong drinking binge, made the performance absolutely hilarious. Any guys, and maybe girls, of similar age can easily share commonalities with these characters and relate to their situation, which in my opinion really added to the humor. In addition, not only was each actor extremely talented with incredible acting and singing skills, but they also each provided the performance with their unique character which created a very comedic dynamic. The group was very entertaining to watch while they bickered, joked, and conversed… and of course, their dirty jokes and explicit humor were spot on.

One of the greatest aspects about this performance was that it had plenty of comedy and raunchy jokes, as well as a very emotionally engaging storyline. Like I said before, the fact that this play is about teenagers who all have their own issues and problems within themselves and also between each other, creates a very relevant and realistic environment. When the drama began to unfold, it was clear that the audience began to sympathize with the characters, especially when the emo-music came out. I felt as though this performance did a fantastic job at developing the characters and getting the audience emotionally aware and involved in both the comedic and dramatic scenes.

As great as the other plays we have seen throughout the semester were, this performance was by far my favorite. Not only was it extremely comedic and emotionally engaging, but it also shed light to some valuable lessons that we can all apply to our lives… 1.Dont shack it with your best friends lover (Pete) 2. Don’t be a douche and make assumptions (JB) 3. Don’t be overly sensitive (Ross) and 4. Don’t call your friends gay… because you never know… you know?

Billy Hahn
UCSB