Have you ever thought your parents were bad parents or that your childhood was traumatizing? Have you ever thought that those parents aren’t fit to be parents? Have you ever just thought those types of situations were funny? If so, this past weekend’s performance of Baby with the Bath Water was definitely for you.
The play revolves around a boy, no girl, no boy…well you get the point. The young Daisy/Rocky (Kyle Melnick) is brought up in a crazy household with young parents Helen (Cindy Raymond) and father John (James Zap). Neither is aware of how to raise a baby. John is collecting unemployment and Helen is trying to write books, but it seems that she can only produce cliff notes for Twilight. They hope their prayers are answered when Nanny (Sally Niebosky) shows up to help, but Nanny has another little man to take care of. The only person that seems to care for the baby is Cynthia (Stephanie Storer). Cynthia has no furniture and a crazy dog that ate her own baby. When she tries to kidnap the young Daisy, the baby runs out in the road and gets hit by a bus.
These turn of events draw young Daisy/Rocky to buses. Her caring teacher Miss Pringle (Shana Clore) and her feminist male-loving principal (Sara McGuire) bring the situation up at school but to no avail. The fascination with buses continues through most of the first act. The show picks up when Daisy is about 17. He (emphasis on the he) is now at college. The next several years go by and Daisy/Rocky is seeing a psychiatrist to discuss his intense sex life, which includes about 1400 people and 800 females. He/she has spent over 13 years in college and has yet to graduate. He still cannot let go of the fact that his parent yelled at him and were completely unfit to be parents. I don’t want to ruin the ending, but he/she gets a girl pregnant, his father becomes an alcoholic, and the crazy, lunatic actors of the show continue to make appearances across the stage.
All in all, Baby with the Bath Water was incredibly funny. If you missed it shame on you: the play was a great representation of the caliber of talent in the UNH theatre department. So if you ever get a chance to catch a play at UNH you won’t be disappointed. Congratulations to the cast and crew!
