REVIEW  — Last Saturday was the premiere of the miniseries “MockU,” a satirical look into a liberal college’s theater department and the politically correct culture enveloping it. The production was the brainchild of its creator, Caroline Kriesen ’20, alongside co-director Emma Bers ’20 and co-writers Zoe Rose ’20, Alan Omori ’20 and Maryam Chishti ’20. This admirable and ambitious student project centered on a group of students from varying backgrounds (arts, pre-law, economics) who plan on participating in an Arts Festival for Diversity and Progress to protest the “Ronald Rump” presidential administration.

The roughly 35-minute pilot for this miniseries introduces us to what appear to be theater student stereotypes: the ones who need a creative arts credit, the “theater couple” who are in everything together, the stoner, the awkward midyear, etc. I’ve never actually been in a theater class or production so I can’t quite confirm the validity of the characters, but they rang true for the audience.

In terms of comedy, my initial reaction was that quite a sizable portion of the jokes went over my head. There were jabs at PC culture I liked, alongside the stresses of university and family expectations, but a lot of it felt like an inside joke. I noticed that the lion’s share of applause and laughter came from a particular section of the room dominated by the cast and crew. The comedy had little universality and broad appeal. 

Despite the somewhat narrow audience this episode was made for, I mostly had a good time with this. However, there were some aspects I was hesitant about. Because this is a student production, I won’t zero in on any technical misgivings, as the team was inhibited by their limited resources and that would be unfair.

Some standout performances included Kate Kesselman’s ’19 acting as the single-mindedly-devoted actress, Sam Forman’s ’21 line delivery as her “theater husband” and Savannah Edmondson’s ’20 hilarious “fish-out-of-water” position as the normal midyear surrounded by the overdramatic theater geeks. Kesselman brought the absurdity, Forman made us laugh the loudest and Edmonson brought a comedic consistency with her reaction shots.

Among the mostly impressive comedic performances, I felt that Rose’s stoner character, Quince, fell flat. She didn’t propel the story in a significant way. The only moment of hers I remember was during her audition for an upcoming project for the festival featured in a montage. Despite the spotlight, Quince failed to be funnier than almost any other supporting character present in the preceding montage.

The dialogue throughout was not very airtight either. Other than a few satirical lectures about cultural appropriation and commentaries on theater culture, the dialogue felt mostly improvised. This may have been why these aforementioned jokes appealed to me more whereas the ones I considered to be “inside jokes” (perhaps thought up on the spot) flew over my head. Some jokes were thoroughly fleshed out, while these just felt like gags most of the audience was not in on. What mostly sold the jokes was the delivery by the cast. They may have been exaggerated caricatures, but they felt real in the “Mock U” world.

There is one consistent flaw that really bothered me though: the displayed title cards in between scenes. There were cuts to white text explaining how much time had passed when a simple establishing shot could do the trick. Instead, the team inserted both, adding a redundancy that really bothered me. A cut from one scene to the next in a different location already implies the passage of time. There was a point where a character was leaving the audition room, the screen showed “10 minutes later” and the video cut to the same character walking in the same building.

Overall, I would say this project knew whom its audience was. Students in the Theater department will get a kick out of it. What’s important is that Kriesen and her team should be lauded for their effort and ambition. If a project appeals to and entertains its envisioned audience, I would consider it a success. This project was simply not intended for me.