The theater department’s production of Flowers for Algernon cannot be praised enough. It contained an amazing cast that gave breathtaking, heart-wrenching performances. The play was enacted brilliantly with excellent staging. Anyone who missed out on this play missed out on something truly spectacular.

The play was all the things it should be: charming and funny at times but not failing to bring the audience to tears. Most significantly, the production succeeded in its goal of making its audience question the way society treats the mentally challenged.

An astounding cast led to stunning performances. Junior Keith Gruber gave an honest and convincing emotional performance that left the audience in tears. His portrayal of Charlie Gordo was believable that took the audience through all of his changes, from a man with an IQ of 68 to a genius and back again.

His emotions were reflected perfectly in the audience, when he laughed the audience laughed, when he cried the audience bawled, and when he was angry at the way he was treated the audience was outraged. From his charming introduction as the lovable Charlie Gordon before his operation, to his detachment from society, and to his heartbreaking mourning at the finale, the audience was with Gruber in his performance.

Of course, the play could not have been as good as it was if Gruber was the only one who gave such an incredible performance. The rest of the cast was spectacular as they supported, confronted, loved, or haunted Charlie as he went through his journey.

The performances of juniors Nell Buechler and Dylan Sample, as Charlie Gordon’s parents, were disturbing in their treatment and reactions to Charlie’s condition. They gave an important background to Charlie’s character.

Charles Campillo’s portrayal of a young Charlie was sensitive, innocent and haunting. The youthful compassion and naivety of his character made the audience feel the need to protect him from all the cruelty that he faced and debate which of Charlie’s personas was the more “human.”

The scientist’s characters forced the audience to question the morality and purposes for experimentation, especially that on humans.

While not everyone is mentioned here, that does not mean that their performances were in anyway less than their fellow cast members’. All of the performances were fantastic meeting the usual high expectations of the theater department. Plays at McNeil are of a quality not seen at most high schools. They are far, far above it. Performances like those in Flowers for Algernon stay with the audience for a long time; they set a standard for theater that is not likely to be found again, especially not at the high school level.