Summer 2019 Oakton College HUM 131 Play Review: Emma, Bye Bye Liver

This report presents a comparative review of two plays: 'Emma' and 'Bye Bye Liver.' The first section reviews 'Bye Bye Liver,' an interactive play by The Pub Theatre Company in Chicago, focusing on drinking culture and audience engagement through sketches and games. The review highlights the play's comedic elements, interactive nature, and its long run in multiple cities. The second section reviews 'Emma,' adapted by Lifeline Theatre from Jane Austen's novel. This production emphasizes Emma Woodhouse's matchmaking attempts and the comedic aspects of the narrative. The review analyzes the performances, direction, set design, and the play's faithfulness to the novel's essence, concluding that both productions are successful in their respective genres and provide engaging experiences for the audience.

Running Head: REVIEW OF THE PLAY EMMA AND BYE BYE LIVER
Review of the Play Emma and Bye Bye Liver
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Review of ‘Bye Bye Liver’
‘Bye Bye Liver’ is a play that is currently being staged by ‘The Pub Theatre Company’ in
Chicago. The play focuses on the lives of the people of Chicago doing what they do in their
pastime that is drink. The show is a sequence of outrageous sketches focusing on one of the most
favorite activity of the Chicago people, which is drinking. ‘Bye Bye Liver’ is an interactive play,
it includes the numerous interactive social games for the audience and this makes the play more
engaging and interesting for the audience as the get to be part of the play.
The play is designed is quite an interactive manner. There are numerous games that pitch
the male versus the female; the play also pitches the actors against the audience. This interactive
nature of the play serves as the USP (Unique Selling Point) of the show. The audiences are kept
engaged throughout the duration of the play. The mood that the play sets is quite fun and it is a
light hearted take on the adventures that comes along with drinking and spending time at the bar.
The audience will like the play because they will feel like that they can drink their worries away.
Watching this play filled with talking about alcohol is fun because even before the plays starts
the audiences start drinking at the lobby. The play starts with an emcee talking about the show;
he warns the audience that if the consumption of alcohol is something that they do not enjoy then
this play is not suitable for them. The play is filled with interactive drinking games and in
Chicago drinking is considered to be the favorite pastime. There are certain parts of the show
which guarantees a laugh like the scene between the actors Sherra Lasley and Mike Barton,
which depicts the after-effects of a number of alcohols on the eve of the 3 years anniversary date.
The reactions of the audience make it clear that most of them are buzzed and some could also
have been out-and-out drunk. The essence of the show is that it is one hour of solid comedy and
it happens to be about alcohol. The show has been running from the past seven year and

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currently has expanded to five cities apart from Chicago. The cast and crew put a lot of effort
into the staging of the play. They even go to the extent of drinking with the audience at the lobby
after the show was over.
The show stars comedian Aaron Ellsworth, Sherra Laskey, Jeff Strickland, Micahel
Barton, Tim de La Motte, Josh Dunkin and Danielle Wheeler. The show is written by the artistic
director and owner of ‘The Pub Theatre’, Bryan Hatfield. He first wrote the play 6 year ago and
had cast college friends Josh Dunkin and Micahel Barton. From its conception, the play has now
expanded to four more cities all across the Midwest. The play does not have a concrete storyline,
as it comprises of various sketches that deals with the consumption of alcohol. The play
comprises of six performers, each of which is preceded by the narrations of ‘The Bartender’,
‘The Waitress’ and ‘The Piano Player’. The sketches depict in a hilarious manner the side-effects
that drinking has. They continuously engage with the audience in toasts, games and songs.
According to Aaron Ellsworth, this is play is not restricted to being a play; it is a party, a
celebration and a drinking game. What the play generates is pure laughter. The show has
depicted all kinds of drunken scenarios. The excessive cussing after getting drunk, the sexual
innuendos after drunk in a bar and numerous other dissolutions that happen when a person is
drunk. One of the interesting point at the play is when the keyboard player starts to taunt the
comedians on stage with his take on the song “Two pumps and done” and “Whiskey dick”, this
was interesting to see as the play not only includes the audiences during their but also the
musicians that are playing in the show. The interactiveness of the play is what makes it more
interesting as there are a lot of plays that are brilliant and interesting but this play takes in the
entire crowd and the musicians to depict their story. It is more like a celebration in the theatre
and not like a formal play. There is also another twist, where one of the audiences gets named

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‘audience member of the hour’ also known in the play as ‘party face’. This person is ten called
out throughout the duration of the show. There is another character that is a laugh riot. The
Chicagoan’s late night hero, ‘the tamale guy’. When he gets roped in for a therapy session of a
couple, he feels out of place because the only thing that he wants to do is sell tamales. Another
hilarious moment from the show is when Ellsworth’s character infiltrates the bathroom dressed
as a woman and acts drunk and then continuously craves for the ‘Denny’s Grand Slam’. This
play is for everyone who is not offended easily and likes to have a great time. This play is funny
for the entire bar goers who has stayed in the bar late or has served drinks to alcoholics
especially those who have sold drinks at 4 a.m.
This review concludes that the play ‘Bye Bye Liver’ is a funny depiction of individuals
who likes to get drunk and spends an enormous amount of time at the bar. The unique point of
the play is that it is interactive and does not only include the audience but also the musicians who
are playing along with the actors. The audiences get a real picture of what happens when a
person drinks uncontrollably. This play makes the audience laugh throughout the running time
and the humors are situational and the performances of the actors are also quite accurate and they
are genuinely funny. The play was written six years ago and is still funny and relevant till this
day.
Review of ‘Emma’
The play ‘Emma’ is based on the 1815 romantic comedy by Jane Austin. It has been
adapted by the ‘Lifeline Theatre’. The basic plot of the play revolves around the protagonist
Emma Woodhouse. Emma is convinced of the fact that no matter what she does, she cannot go
wrong with anything. The characters all belong to a higher economic class and Emma is an
exuberant socialite, who inserts herself in the love life of all the her friends and family and then

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when everything gets tangles up because of her meddling nature, she leans the lesson that she has
to stay out of other’s life and focus on herself.
Phil Timberlake who is the play-writer of this production, makes his debut in Lifeline, he
is joined by the other member Elise Kauzlaric, who had previously directed the play ‘Pride and
Prejudice’ in the year 2012 and in 2016 he directed Noethanger Abbey. This play offers a fresh
perspective on the novel ‘Emma’. This play is interesting to watch now, during the time that this
novel was written, there were dating mobile applications so finding a right match was a bigger
concern among the youth and hence this play shows the ways in which Emma tries to help out
her friend by trying to find the right match for everyone. Thus in the absence of dating
applications, all that is left is the friends that a person has, Emma is one such who is over-
enthusiastic about the dating life of her friends. It is Timberlake’s debut in playwriting. This play
features Emma Sipora Tyler, in the titular role of Emma Woodhouse. Other than her, there are
other four actors who are all in major roles. The strength of the play lies in the fact that all the
actors play their parts perfectly and this makes the play a fun watch. The direction and the s
aging by Kauzlaric are very sharp and this helps the play gain its character. The set design by
Sarah Lewis is quite brilliantly done as it helps the audience realize the settings. A drawback of
the staging is that the class difference that the novel has is not clear in this production.
The play focuses on the things that Emma does in her effort to make sure that all her
friends have a dating life. In this context, Emma tries to set up her orphan friend Harriet with the
town vicar Mr.Elton, who is in love with Emma. Emma is unaware of this fact. Despite all her
good intentions, her matchmaking goes terribly wrong and she cannot figure out who is attracted
to whom and this creates a chaos in everybody’s life. At the beginning of the play actress who
plays Emma seem a little hesitant but she in the duration of the play, she manages to maintain

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her charm and it becomes increasingly difficult to dislike her character despite all the mishaps
that her character causes. She comes off as shallow and disrespectful of others wishes but the
rendition of the character is adorable and she looks like the part she is playing. The best part
about the play is that it is neither a word to word adaptation off the play neither is it a
modernized adaptation of the novel. This version has taken a middle ground and cleverly shows
the misguided attempts of the socialite Emma while she tries to find a boyfriend for all her
friends. Another thing about the play is that few of the actors such as Cory Williamson, Peter
Gertas, Maddie Pell and Jeri Marshal change the characters rapidly and this although sounds
confusing but it comes across as extremely funny. The play employs a very common comedic
device that is a single actor sometimes switches back and forth between to characters who are
talking to each other. The actor Maddie Pell plays two characters, one is of the orphan Harriet
Smith and the other is of the silly spinster Miss Bates. The supporting cast is a lot stronger than
the protagonist. The Emma lacked a lot of the sensibilities that the character was supposed to
have, such as the fact that her redeeming qualities are the faults that she had but these are
missing in this production of Emma. This production capitalizes on the humor that novel has, the
character is also shown to be witty which another thing that the novel has is. Lifeline has a
history of portraying these classics; they have a produced quite number of these adaptations. This
play is considered as one of the highly profitable plays and is added to the list of few of the best
plays in Chicago. The directors try and take few liberties while adapting this play but it has
stayed true to the main essence of the play which is that Emma a socialite, who seems to not care
about the problems in the world and tries to set up he friends so that they can have a dating life.
Her matchmaking attempts fail every time but she is relentless in her attempts, she keeps on

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setting up her friends and through her failed efforts she learned to mind her own business and let
go of her tendencies.
This essay concludes that the production of Emma is authentic and funny. The actors have
a done a good job in playing the characters, the protagonist is timid but she stands through the
play but the supporting casts have done a better a job than the protagonist of the play. There are
characters that have played two or more characters, they have done a good job but it was at a
time confusing for the audience to understand. Other than that the play is entertaining to watch, it
was one of the highest grossing play of Chicago. One of the funniest shows currently playing at
Lifeline. Lifeline has a history of staging these plays and Emma is one of the classic that they are
currently staging and it has also proven to be one of the most successful plays staged by Lifeline.