Madness took control of Ward 2 Friday night as the transvestites, trixies and Transylvanians from the student performance group Androids Fighting returned for another midnight performance of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."
Continuing the success of last semester's debut performance, the cast took an already unconventional tradition and made it even more unconventional with unique casting, choreography and callback lines. New cast members joined this semester's performance, and some returning members changed roles. They even experimented with cross-gender casting, using Vanessa Mueller as Rocky.
The beloved omni-prop rubber chicken also made an appearance in this semester's performance, acting as any missing prop. Cast members wielded rubber chicken bouquets, candelabras and steering wheels, adding to the imaginative and slightly off-beat performance.
Corset-clad cast members ushered the audience into the makeshift theater, and then the pre-show began with a provocative dance choreographed by senior Rachel Treffeisen to the song "Freak" from the musical "Taboo." The "virgin sacrifice," an initiation for new audience members, was not received quite as well as the cast had hoped. At that point in the night, the first-time "Rocky" viewers still seemed apprehensive about the traditional taboo-breaking of "Rocky Horror."
One major tradition of live midnight "Rocky Horror" viewing involves cast and audience members shouting comments to augment or replace the movie's dialogue, which, at times, is rather lacking. These jokes, called callbacks, are eerily consistent in different productions, from cast to cast, and even from state to state. Each cast also ends up bringing its own witty contributions to the library of callback lines.
Many first-time audience members had not anticipated people shouting with so much fervor at the screen throughout the whole movie. Club officer Justin Schneider clearly shook up the audience a few times with his edgy original callbacks by incorporating controversial current events.
Although the newcomers were wary at first, the ingenuity of the talented and dedicated cast drew them in. It was not long before the whole audience was laughing at the movie as well as the callbacks and even shouting out some of their own lines.
Not only was the creativity of the cast apparent, its coordination was right on. Several male cast members displayed uncanny dexterity as they donned high heels and ran and danced through the aisles. Their time-warping skills were, simply put, astounding, as was the grace with which they step-step-step-kicked.
The performance was not without glitches, however. Thanks to the fickle AU audio-visual system, the film alternated between losing sound and visual at random times. The second screen refused to work altogether, even though it did flicker on once or twice, and the emergency door alarm went off several times during the film.
Unforeseen technical difficulties, coupled with the occasional blare of the alarm, might have spelled disaster for any other group. But these androids kept fighting, and neither cast nor audience was fazed. Cast and audience members began to ad-lib the dialogue they did not know, and "Rocky" enthusiasts sang along with the songs they knew by heart, bringing audience participation to a new level.
The performance, although widely enjoyed, did not have the attendance of last semester's. Advertising further in advance instead of relying so heavily on word of mouth might have brought this semester's audience numbers to the level of Halloween's sold-out performance.
Overall, a talented cast made up of dedicated Rocky fans made this an enjoyable and highly recommended event. From cross-casting to corsets, from Tim Curry to Meatloaf, Friday night's performance was uniquely "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and uniquely Androids Fighting. The cast brought AU the twisted cult experience, which is something viewers do not get by simply watching the movie on television.
