By Raveena Rahman, Oct. 22, 2024
The Department of Theatre and New Dance at Cal Poly Pomona delivered a reenactment of “8 Minutes Left,” bringing themes of love, friendships and regrets, and provoking a range of emotions within the audience from tears to laughter.
Directed by Colin Campbell, the play follows the residents of Charlesville, New Jersey, while they plan their last moments on Earth with only eight minutes left to live. The play was performed in the smaller theatre located in Building 25 on campus with the theater almost reaching maximum capacity of 55 seats opening night.
The play shows 10 storylines with each actor playing a couple of different roles. All the characters are grasping to find a purpose, resulting in conflicts that get resolved by them building or mending connections.
“The play goes through the lives of many different people in the city and what they are doing in their last few moments,” said theatre student and box office worker Darcy Egebakken. “One of the scenes involves a couple trying to get into their bunker. Another scene shows two individuals trying to argue over taking a bench at a park with a view. And there’s another with a woman watching her two kids and thinking about what their lives would have been like if they were able to grow up.”
Other scenes in the play range from a sweet love story at a local diner to a couple fighting over not being able to see cherry blossom trees, and siblings clashing over photo albums, reflecting the complexities of human relationships amid moments of crisis in a humorous manner.
“This play is about connection,” said Jackson Burton, a theatre student who played five different roles in the play. “If the world were to end, what every single person would want more than anything else is just to connect with somebody, and that genuine, meaningful human connection is the most important thing that we can achieve. So, more people should be striving for that.”
Each scene is one individual story and playing different roles was a fun challenge for Burton.
Burton said the role of Elijah was his favorite to play because the character’s dorky and innocent nature reminded him of his younger self.
In Elijah’s last eight minutes, he panics and desperately tries to spend his time the same way he would on an average Tuesday. His co-worker Raven comforted him, causing them to build a friendship and spend their final moments on Earth together.
Theatre student Lu Yeh claimed he connected with the script and the concept of the show.
“It was really interesting to play different roles and dive into the mindsets of people right before they know they are about to die,” Yeh said. “Booker is my favorite character I play because I personally see a lot of myself in him. There is a lot of care for your family there. I personally am very close with my mom. I call her every day, and the scene with him and his mom is very sweet.”
Yeh added the cast’s closeness, and the adjunct lecturer Colin Campbell’s hard work made the show possible.
Scenic designer and theatre student, Itaka Ushijima, described the set design as beautiful yet dark. He claimed the design is meant to relay an apocalyptic feel while still capturing the essence of beauty.
The main elements in the design included a diner counter that turned into a popcorn station, a sofa, a bunker and a wheelchair.
Ushijima said theatre student and sound designer Isaiah Maldonado influenced the set design by changing certain elements to match the sound effects.
“I started off gathering images to use as inspiration for both physical locations, as well as the emotional inspiration to find images that evoke the feel of the play,” Ushijima said. “That and conversations with Colin helped hone in on what exactly I wanted to capture within the set.”
Feature image courtesy of Bren Belmonte