By Yoel Abulaf

The Black Box was as full as it could be at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 10. This year’s freshman play is “Holes,” an adaption of the book by Louis Sachar. The show ran for 90 minutes with a 10-minute intermission.

The show followed pretty much the same structure as the book. Stanley Yelnats (Mitchell Schroeder) is wrongly accused of stealing a pair of shoes and gets sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention center, where he meets all of these other characters, such as Zero (Afik Zaarur), Armpit (Damini Gopal) and Mr. Sir (Jacob Zachary-Flanders). The punishment at Camp Green Lake is to dig holes everyday, but Stanley makes a deal with Zero: he would teach Zero how to read; Zero would dig his holes for him.

The first half of the show focused more on the main story whereas the second half was comprised more of flashbacks.

The stage in the Black Box is in the center of the room, surrounded by four seating areas. The characters came onstage from all four corners of the room. Although hard to follow at times, it was visually interesting.

The cast was very talented. Schroeder performed with a lot of emotion and detail. Zachary-Flanders did an impressive midwestern accent and projected his character, the tough counselor at Camp Green Lake, very well.

Sam (Kris Hernandez), the onion picker, was the crowd’s favorite. Hernandez made everybody laugh at all of his lines.

Overall, “Holes” was a joy to watch. It was also satisfying to see such potential from the high school’s newest members. The acting was very believable and the show was entertaining.

Yoel Abulaf can be contacted at [email protected]