By Bethany Lange

Herald Reporter

EVANSTON — The Evanston High School theater department performed “The Clumsy Custard Horror Show” as a dinner show for three days last week. Despite near-disasters approaching the show, many actors and actresses stepped up at the last minute to make it a success.

The play, an indisputable farce, took audience members on a crazy journey through the twists and turns of an improbable love story and adventure populated by characters with names like Head, Sir Prize, Sir Loin, Sir Vival, Sir Cumference, the Clumsy Custard and the turkey spiders. It was directed by Erin Russell.

Payton Walsh, acting the part of the heroic Swashbuck Valpariso, stole the show with his fast feet antics (madly galloping after the villains with a hop, skip and a leap); he was joined as well by his costar Nicole Bott, the spoiled Princess Prince.

Carter Rex also drew laughs through his portrayals of both King Dumb and King Dumb’s archnemesis, Dacron. Rex played the two opposing character with aplomb, alternately assuming the identity of a fat and foolish king who really just wants his chips and the sinister Dacron, who is plotting to kidnap, imprison and marry King Dumb’s daughter. Rex was joined by the wicked Malforce, played by the always entertaining C.J. McDonald, who also served two masters — King Dumb and Dacron.

In fact, the play is full of such ridiculous pairings, with even Princess Prince’s nanny, Alphasia, double crossing her spoiled charge by manipulating King Dumb and working with Malforce and Dacron to arrange the princess’s abduction.

In fact, Dacron is practically the king of both Zob Proper and Zob Improper because of his connections; he only lacks a legitimate connection to Zob Proper, which he hopes to remedy by kidnapping and marrying Princess Prince.

However, although the princess is betrayed by nearly everyone around her, she has one loyal defender left: Swashbuck Valpariso, who has been arrested for supposedly trying to kidnap her (although he was really her rescuer).

The couple also fall in love later when they meet almost properly; however, because Princess Prince is disguised as a scullery maid and Swashbuck Valpariso convinces the princess that he is a raisin washer, they remain deceived until the last moments of the play.

The audience also participated, especially by enhancing the sound effects (including raucous birds, rushing wind, the tweets of lovebirds and the turkey spiders’ mad gobbles) and by helping to rescue Swashbuck Valpariso and his companion, the Worfle, from a force field prison. That rescue came in the form of singing “Old McDonald Had a Farm,” replacing the word “cow” with “force field.” One memorable  moment came when the audience was asked to act the part of Swashbuck Valpariso’s direst enemies — theater critics! The boos and hisses were fearsome as he ventured through Dacron’s dungeon in search of the princess, who was locked up with the Clumsy Custard that had devoured her mother many years prior.

One audience member on Friday also became an impromptu star by snitching King Dumb’s chips and enduring King Dumb’s entreaties for most of the first act.

While dinner was being served, the audience was entertained by visiting actors as well as by impromptu ukulele performances.

The EHS Theatre Department will next perform Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” on May 4-6.