A Spooktacular Start to Family Weekend
The RPI Players alongside acappella group Duly Noted performed “Fear: A Cabaret” this Friday in the Chapel + Cultural Center. As guests walked into the venue, they were informed that the performance would have interactive elements and were offered a glowstick if they did not want to participate . This served as a great accessibility tool, especially for younger members in the crowd due to Family Weekend.
The interactive portion of the event began as soon as audience members filed in. Three actors dressed as waiters walked around in an erratic manner and randomly chose different patrons without glow sticks to mess with. One waiter, Mark Belle-Isle ’26, walked around with a lantern and led—or attempted to lead—guests to new seats, usually closer to the stage. Another waiter, Hope Constant ’27, held a platter with a singular glass and gestured for patrons to take a sip. The final waiter, Morgan Jones ’27, was the most emotional and frustrated of the group, scribbling on a notepad as if she was taking orders then ripping the pages off and throwing them at the guests. The eccentric ushering experience immediately set the tone of the performance as unsettling yet a bit unserious at the same time.
Once the clock hit seven, emcee Claudia Hernandez ’25 took the stage and introduced the performance, explaining the goal of displaying multiple types of fear. After a blood curdling scream from Jones, the first soloist, Sterling Nowosielski ‘26, was introduced and act one began. The show consisted of a series of solos and duets, with 13 songs in the first act and 11 in the second act. Both acts also contained renditions of infamous monologues, one from Slay the Princess in Act I and one from V from Vendetta in Act II. The 24 singers covered songs from both popular musicals such as Be More Chill and Beetlejuice, as well as popular movies like Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Princess and the Frog.
The chapel was the perfect venue to showcase the talents of these performers as the high ceilings allowed their bold and powerful voices to carry throughout the room. The dim lighting and cement brick walls also added to the atmosphere of the cabaret. The tone of the performance was further emphasized by the costume designs. For the most part, the actors stuck to a color palette of red, black, and white, only straying away to be more accurate to the source material during songs like “Done For” from Epic: the Musical. The performers used dark makeup to give themselves a bruised and injured, or doll-like and possessed look.
Outside of the individual acts, a larger, overarching plotline was occurring during the transitions between performers. Before the end of the first act, as Hernandez was attempting to explain the next act, she realized her ability to speak was gone and a voice over the speaker did the explanation instead. She then suddenly fell to the ground and was taken away by the waiters with emcee Mick McCartney ‘25 taking over for her. During the second act, Hernandez suddenly appeared behind McCartney holding a missing sign which had her face on it, reading “Have you seen her?” The sign was then flipped around to say “She has seen you,” leading to McCartney chasing her backstage. The spectacle was introduced by Hernandez, who was speaking in a higher pitched voice and acting as though she was possessed. After that, McCartney went back to emceeing like normal. McCartney also sang the finale of the performance and delivered a monologue that implied the disturbing characters within the performance would continue to haunt the viewers for the foreseeable future.
“Fear: A Cabaret” was a shocking yet humorous performance, providing a spectacular start to all the other Family Weekend performances that would succeed it.