Seven Ages Woos Brandon With Rent

A star cast of Brandon and surrounding community members recently brought the Tony award winning musical, RENT to life for Westman’s viewing public. With much of the cast comprised of BU students, Seven Ages presented the stories of Benny, Mark, Maureen, Joanne, Mimi, Roger, Collins, and Angel with amazing realism night after night. RENT is a story about the trials of friendship, love, and life seen through the eyes of the various characters over the course of two years. By delving deep into the issues of homelessness, drug addiction, and HIV/AIDS, the production brought some of society’s most typically unspoken about issues to the forefront of the stage.

A lawyer, exotic dancer, business man, along with a number of struggling artists came together in provocative accounts of hetero and homosexual eroticism. The raw displays of sexuality, while often quite shocking to the crowd, raised the rhetorical question – ‘why is it that these subjects are deemed taboo in today’s society?’ In the midst of the negativity experienced and felt by the majority of the characters, the positivity and glowing spirit belonging to one personality shone through. The character which presented as the most socially unacceptable of the bunch, the flamboyant drag queen Angel, attested to the age-old adage ‘life is what you make it’. Her heart-wrenching death near the close of the performance brought new perspective to the other characters providing a happy ending to a dismal story.

The most well-known musical rendition from the performance, “Seasons of Love” leaves the crowd with a similar message of overall positivity: “In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life? How about love?” In closing I would like to take the opportunity to send out the most spectacular bouquet to the cast and crew of RENT. Job extremely well done!