Three frighteningly funny words to describe Chesterton High School’s latest theatre production: 

Stinky. Cheese. Man. Directed by Justin Martinson and adapted from the book, Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka, produced one of the most entertaining productions I have ever witnessed- for high school as well as outside theatre performances.

The play was easy to follow along with and offered sarcastic, witty banter amongst the characters. Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales allowed for the audience members to interact with the cast, as well as being whisked away to a whimsical land. Not only was the cast’s chemistry enticing and comical, but the storyline was childish and fun. The storyline followed the narrator, Jack, played by freshman Logan Arthur, leading the audience through a series of well-known fairy tales- but with a comedic twist.

The cast did a magnificent job taking on the role of becoming their individual characters. The music and singing that accompanied the acting was amazing. I felt like I was watching a movie because of how close the audience was to the cast and the events onstage.

The costumes looked as if they were plucked out of a fairy tale. The Giant’s mask displayed a great attention to detail. I have to say, being in the audience and being unfamiliar with the story, I was startled when I saw the Giant because of how realistic and malicious his appearance was.

As for the one and only Stinky Cheese Man- the costume was suited so perfectly for the character, with two olives for eyes and a strip of bacon for the mouth. The material used for the cheese also surprisingly softened the texture. The actress who played the infamous Stinky Cheese Man, junior Olivia Vogel, slid gracefully from each side of the stage when first making an appearance.

While the targeted demographic for this story is children, people of all ages found the performance hysterical. The cast interacted with each other so organically and the story simply unfolded perfectly.

There isn’t a thing I would want to change about this production and there is nothing in my opinion that needed to be improved. The cast, director, costume, makeup, lights, sound, stage managers and crew, as well as the artists and set and props creators did a fantastic job and did the absolute best job in creating a fairy tale environment.

With The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales being of great sentimentality to the director, Justin Martinson, I inquired what this production meant to him, “The book is sentimental to me but also family theatre is sentimental to me. When I was a student at CHS I was in this production with Mr. Zeck. It’s meant a lot to me to become the director. The intention when family theatre began was to foster a love of reading…so I found a play for The Stinky Cheese Man and it was awesome. It was really cool to see the book come to life. The cast and I read the book together and it was so fun, the script was different but similar to the book. Not everyone knows it [The Stinky Cheese Man story] so it was kind of my mission to spread the love of this crazy children’s book.”