On Tuesday, April 3rd, Madame Mayer’s French students put on a terrific performance before the beginning of spring break. This year’s theme focused on classic Disney movies such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Ratatouille, The Aristocrats, The Pink Panther, Phantom of the Opera, and The Little Prince.
Although it was a “french” performance for french classes, students incorporated English into their dialect to ensure that the audience understood each movie plot. Above the movie plot, however, the goal of the performance was supposed to be concise, yet exciting and comedic. The play kicked off with the classic La Panthère Rose (The Pink Panther.) Because the count number of freshmen involved is very large, there were multiple segments of La Panthère Rose.
From the author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French IV and V students reenacted segments from Le Petit Prince. During this piece, Sam Scarpone ‘13, acted as the little prince, who travels on a journey to different planets, where he inevitably meets up with various different people. The little prince comes across a drunk man, who drinks to forget the shame he feels for drinking. He then meets a businessman, who is very engrossed in his numerical calculations of the stars that he hardly even notices the prince.
Afterwards, the legendary Hunchback of Notre Dame came next, which highlighted the main points of the movie. Despite the tragedy that takes place in this story, the students provided comedic relief through a means of amusing and engaging dialect that sparked laughter from the audience. The piece ended with the gypsy, Esmeralda, sharing her adoration for Quasimodo, telling him that, “we all love you, you are courageous- a hero.”
Next, French III students performed the song from The Aristocats, “Everybody wants to be a cat.” The song was upbringing and cheery, which brought about much applause from the audience. Aside from an older film, the newer 2007 American film, Ratatouille, was a piece in which nearly the whole audience remembered clearly. There were obvious responses from the audience, which showed that the students pulled out all the essential parts in the movie.
Finally, That French Show came to a close with the melodramatic Phantom of the Opera, which ran the longest out of all the pieces. The students wore full ball gown dresses, with dramatic face masks and accessories. During scene switching, dancers performed to multiple songs from the film, which added drama and intensity to the overall piece.
The overall performance of That French Show received great remarks from the audience. One mother said, “The play had the perfect balance of both comedy, drama, language variations, and conciseness. It was so much worthwhile and entertaining for an hour rather than two and a half hours.” Both Madame Mayer and her students look forward to next year’s That French Show, which their new ideas are waiting for eyes to come and see.
