The Must See Comedy – Hard Cell

A Review of Geva’s Hard Cell

January 17, 2018

By Michelle Garrett

You know that classic television show where the crowd is not seen and yet they are beside themselves with laughter? The new comedy Hard Cell at Geva Theatre has a feeling like that as the audience experiences an absurd story of mistaken identity and a ruse that quickly gets out of hand.

The plot of the play quickly spiraled out of control as an insane plan was formulated to try and keep a professor, Nick, alive and well when he becomes the victim of a hate crime. Nick is a middle-eastern man who is attacked by the character Evan after a misunderstanding arises about who Nick is and why he is in their tiny town.

The setting of this play takes place in a common and tiny economically depressed town in the middle of the United States – basically somewhere intentionally nonspecific. Each of the five characters in this play takes on a larger-than-life and comedic role. There is a hard-core bartender, a theatre professor, a tiny sheriff, a big bully with a baseball bat, and an emo/ grunge teen who truly stole the show. Sean Patrick, who played emo teen Derek Shirley, gave a spectacular performance having mimicked what any teen who is desperately seeking to disappear while simultaneously stand out would be like. His character had a mohawk, black clothes from head to toe, and a voice that only teen despair could sound like. His character and attitude were the sources of many laughs in this show.

Often times the topics that we find most laughable and easy to joke about are not actually all that funny when you think about it. That is most likely one of the reasons why Brent Askari wrote this extremely amusing comedy mocking the ignorance that many people could hold within them on the topic of terrorism.

The laughs throughout the show were easily flowing as the play constantly created moments of ridiculousness. As any comedy might go, the point of the joke was repeated over and over, but it never quite grew tiresome. The second act contributed to the flow of crazy and rounded out the comedy in the play well. Especially as the sheriff of the town, a tiny and power-hungry woman, tried to take over the chaotic misunderstanding of the play. The actress, Jennifer Cody, did a phenomenal job taking up the space of the set and she was not afraid to climb around and look ridiculous to get a laugh.

This show was an excellent comedy. If you are looking for an evening of laughs, then this is a must-see show. The play runs until February 3 at Geva theatre downtown. Student rush tickets are just 15 dollars at the door! Come out and see this crazy fun play!