Theater Meets Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll in ‘ENTOMO’

The bar was completely dark and silent, except for three female singers harmonizing on a haunting rendition of “Because” by The Beatles.

“Love is old, love is new/Love is all, love is you.”

The entire audience inside Club Oberon, a combination bar-theater in Harvard Square, sat cross-legged on the dance floor in the darkness. Boston University alum Carolyn Gilliam, one of the singing trio, sat on the low stage at the front of the dance floor, slowly twisting a flashlight around to illuminate the crowd’s entranced faces one by one as they absorbed the surreal scene.

This was Entomo, a music-driven theater experience developed as a senior thesis last spring for the College of Fine Arts’ theater arts program. Both a celebration and a parody of rock ‘n’ roll culture, the show was performed on Sunday for a one-night-only stand at Club Oberon, directed by BU alum Paul Leopold.

When I first heard the concept for Entomo, I immediately thought of other musical melees like Across the Universe, Movin’ Out, and Glee; all have plots that are shoved into the parameters created by their chosen soundtracks. Depth and creativity are limited (sorry, Gleeks). But Entomo, set to the music of The Beatles, avoids the pitfalls the others succumb to. The songs are woven into the plot instead of awkwardly sitting on the surface. The venue made it a fun, interactive experience for the audience akin to a rock concert.  And, most importantly, the actors, a combination of BU students and alumni, had the singing and acting chops to sell the entire thing completely.

The storyline, inspired by the Greek tragedy The Bacchae, revolves around the raucous and hypnotizing rock band Entomo. The four-man (well, three men and one transvestite) band comes to the all-American town Thebes for a concert, and proceeds to turn this bastion of moral conservatism into an orgy that makes Woodstock look tame. Among those under Entomo’s spell are conniving music journalist Rita Meter and wholesome high schooler Lucy Agave, whose horrified boyfriend Max sets out to single-handedly banish the rockers and restore Thebes’ image of spotless Christian morality.

While there were enough aesthetic touches to grab the audience’s attention in their own right (strobe lights, bright pink hot pants, spiked collars, and seductively eaten strawberries to name a few), the performances are what made Entomo a hit. Gilliam, as Entomo’s lead singer, throatily delivered every line with perfectly drugged-up spaciness, and her impressively hard-hitting renditions of “Helter Skelter” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” were worthy of hordes of screaming fans. The three musicians backing her up, portrayed by Andy Bisdale, Jordan Sobel, and Alex Schneps, were hilarious caricatures of charmingly vile rockers. BU theater student Layne Kula, who played the role of Lucy, was also a highlight with her perky portrayal of a knee-socked good girl itching to let out her devilish side.

The script was darkly funny, and there were just enough F-bombs, political jabs, and innuendo to be irreverent without appearing to be trying too hard. The tragic themes borrowed from The Bacchae also gave the play some weight, balancing out gag lines like, “I was at a party in Michigan, and I somehow woke up at BU, having sex with these three in the props closet.” And from the mid-show conga line and Beatles sing-a-longs to the DJed dance party that followed the performance, it was just plain fun for the audience. A testament to the talent in BU’s theater program, Entomo is a trippy rabbit hole worth falling into and will hopefully be produced again in the future.