Sensual Daydreams thrill and chill students at the Grad with their Rocky Horror Shadowcast
Watching the opening sketch by Sensual Daydreams Shadowcast, a Star Wars-based romp filled with exactly the right amount of dirty jokes, awkward puns and outright obscenity, I knew we were in good hands. Having interviewed various members of Sensual Daydreams last week before their Rocky Horror Picture Show performance on Sunday, I was expecting both the best and the worst — and I received it in abundance.
We started with a little intro for the virgins amongst us who haven’t seen a Rocky Horror Picture Show live before. This intro consisted of six people finding cherries in pie dishes filled with whipped cream, to represent the popping of their virginal “cherries.” Oh, and they had to do it with their mouths. Whilst this palaver was going on, the three pie dish holders had it no better. Whilst holding the dish at crotch level, they imitated their favorite cartoon characters having an orgasm. Thankfully, Pikachu came away unscathed, but I’ll never ever watch Scooby-Doo the same way again.
The cast then ran through a brief slideshow detailing the key audience participation scenes, such as throwing various food items at the cast and yelling obscenities. Let’s just say that “asshole” and “slut” became a large part of my vocabulary for the night. This debacle swiftly ushered on the movie and with it, cries of “The lips, the lips!”
Highlights included the window wipers in the driving scene cueing a back and forth from the crowd of asshole, slut, asshole, slut, being hit in the elbow by a corner of toast, laughing hysterically at some of the more colourful callbacks and the incredible costume efforts. The actors made a glorious effort with their costumes, with sparkles abounding, lipstick galore and corsets laced tight.
The cast kept the callbacks and miming up to a perfect tee, all the way up to the climax (no pun intended). The penultimate scene of the floor show was an absolute delight, with a barely-in-sync cast mimicking a wonderful cabaret for us, tottering in impressively accurate (and by accurate, I mean glittery) heels and costumes. I felt genuine sorrow as our Frank N Furter strode down the centre aisle proclaiming that he was going home, corset on backwards and mascara streaming. The audience ceased to callback as the tension rose and the absurdity reached an all-time high as the castle took off into space, half of us staring in awe and half in bafflement. Thankfully, our sorrows were alleviated by the cast coming on for their bows, still intensely be-glittered, and smiling fit to burst.
Sensual Daydreams meets Sundays at 3 p.m. in Giedt 1003 to rehearse and anyone is welcome to join. Check out its Facebook page and contact them to find out more about their upcoming performance in April.
WRITTEN BY: Kate Snowdon – arts@theaggie.org
