After getting off the horrid elevator, we had finally arrived at the INTAR Theatre. We took our playbill for Teach, Teacher, Teachest by Koteles, waited for the rest of the class, and then followed a narrow pathway into a small dark room with a maximum capacity of about fifty people. In the middle of the room was a miniature, brightly lit, green and purple stage. The professor’s maid/lover, a man dressed as a woman, seemed to be patrolling the floor. She gracefully slid around, occasionally targeting flirtatious glances at some audience members, and giving playful waves to others. Her make up was dreadful, her dress and apron smudged and tattered, her wig a frizzy mess, and her legs awfully hairy. “What an introduction,” I thought.

As the play progressed, it seemed to get only odder. A pixie-like student with big bright blue hair bearing a tank top, shorts, and incredibly long socks appeared on stage. Not long after her, the nutty Professor in a green shirt and overalls appeared, after his maid opened the safe where he was trapped inside. With all three characters on stage, there were constant strobe lights, acrobatics tricks, dancing, stomping, and all in all complete chaos. The play was comical, captivating, and invigorating. However, considering this is an adaptation of Ionesco’s French play, The Lesson, in which Ionesco uses dark humor and satire to criticize the intellectuals of his country and time, Koteles does more than simply make the audience laugh. He addresses real and ever present issues that America as a whole still faces today.

While playing a “Name this Picture” kind of game, the Professor touches upon his opinions on big business, politics, and religion. For example, he calls this man right here…

… a really wonderful man who creates minimum wage jobs, twelve hour shifts, and awful working conditions. After his pupil inevitably disagrees with the Professor’s opinion for every picture, the Professor finally has enough of her “nonsense” and “ignorance”. He takes a wooden stick, and smashes it into her, killing her (in real life he smashes a watermelon that got all over our clothing). This is just another example in which Koteles is making fun a system, in this case the educational system.

Teach, Teacher, Teachest was a really lively and entertaining play. I loved it and I would recommend it to anyone with an open mind and anyone who just wants to have a good time.