“Harvey” Is a Hit

By KATIE LEIGH

Jericho High School’s Harlequin Players put on another amazing performance. Coincidentally “Harvey” was performed after Hurricane Harvey destroyed parts of Texas. In response to this, the cast and crew decided not to charge admittance to opening night, and rather asked that the audience donate money for hurricane relief. A total of $378 was raised for the Beaumont School District in Texas.

Senior Amanda L., left, who played Myrtle May Simmons, said, “The cast and crew were like a family, and the directors were so understanding and fun to work with.”

The play follows a social-climbing mother and daughter, Veta Louise Simmons and Myrtle Mae Simmons, along with Veta’s brother Elwood P. Dowd and Harvey, his imaginary 6’1” rabbit. The show begins with a party hosted by Veta in an attempt to marry her daughter off to the grandson of Mrs. Ethel Chauvenet. However, Elwood interrupts this conversation to introduce Mrs. Chauvenet to Harvey, scaring her off and causing her to disappear along with Veta’s hopes of her daughter’s marriage. This is the final straw for Veta after being constantly embarrassed by her brother and his pooka, and decides to meet with a psychiatrist to have Elwood institutionalized. In a crazy turn of events, Veta inadvertently ends up as a patient in the sanitarium instead of Elwood after admitting to Dr. Sanderson that she thinks she, too, has seen Harvey.

One hilarious highlight was while the staff was searching for Elwood; he casually entered his home and replaced a painting with one of him and Harvey.

Throughout the rest of the show, the cast follows the sanitarium staff’s hysterical journey to figure out which sibling is actually the insane one, ultimately realizing that it is Elwood. The doctors scramble to undo the mix up they’ve made, but they struggle to relocate Elwood. The show concludes with Elwood awaiting an injection to make the pooka disappear from his mind, but Veta decides to stop this from happening because she has an epiphany that she loves her brother the way he is.

Senior Daryn N.-S., who played the role of Veta, said that she feels very lucky to have been part of this performance. “Everyone involved in the show is so talented. I loved being part of both the show and the fundraising for a great cause.”

Although imaginary, Harvey was treated as a cast member and received recognition during the final bows.

Overall, “Harvey” was a great success as both a play and a fundraiser. If you loved “Harvey” or even if you missed it, make sure you come see the spring musical “Grease” in March!

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