Surviving the plague: The commentary video that “PESTILENCE: Wow!” deserves

Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.

I lied. This isn’t a video … in case you hadn’t noticed. I’m doing the best I can here. After all, what is reality TV without a minimum of 30 YouTube commentary videos regurgitating the same critiques? As such, I implore you to use your imagination — like and subscribe if you’re feeling kind.

Hi viewers, today we’ll be talking about the student production “PESTILIENCE: Wow!” Held at the Elliot Program Center from Feb. 28 to March 1 and supported by Stanford Theater Laboratory, this onstage reality TV show gave one lucky winner the chalice of life — the only way to survive the bubonic plague in 1348 Avignon, France.

Was the show fair? Not really. Did MC Hosty Bodine have a favorite? Quite clearly. Do I presume show worker Monkey’s salary far exceeded hard-working Funky’s? Definitely. All of this culminated in a wonderful piece of reality TV. 

The show followed five contestants lucky enough to have survived the plague so far. Played by Sawyer Williams ’26 M.A. ’27, Raul — or as MC Hosty Bodine (Jack Moreland ’27) referred to him, “my baby…my precious…” — was your typical, arrogant, science-following guy who considers himself better than everyone. He had just one quirk — whipping himself. No judgment here. Who knows what I’d do to cope with the plague?

Alphonse (Nathaniel Wong ’28) is the kind frat boy stereotype reimagined for the 1300s: playful and not entirely sure what’s going on. Despite high tensions, he developed a sort-of friendship with Simone (Kailamae Sands ’28) after the pair became tied up together. Sands portrayed her as overly optimistic, like your typical anime protagonist — insistent on the power of teamwork and everyone voicing their feelings. 

Georgette (Annika Sirtori ’29) carried herself elegantly, though she seemed absorbed in the wrong things, saying, “The plague could make or break my career [making collages].” Leading the show was MC Hosty Bodine, a chaotic figure who made some morally questionable decisions about who to eliminate after each round.

I saved my favorite for last — MC Hosty isn’t the only one who can play favorites. My new inspiration, and someone who should be your new inspiration: Agnes. Brought to life by Lindsay McKinley ’27, Agnes was a bit of a madwoman. Yet what is a madwoman if not a woman reacting appropriately to her circumstances? She was harsh and insistent to win, as we’d all be during the plague. 

Though all characters were amazing, McKinley’s ability to keep her voice raspy was particularly wondrous. 

“I was really impressed with how she always sounded like she was dying with her breath,” attendee Zadie Diniz ’28 said. “Everyone just felt so right for [their] role.”

For me, the most heartbreaking part of the show was Agnes’ elimination in the first round — all simply because she caught the plague, coughing violently during the quintet’s choreographed number. Luckily, even after a video montage played for her in remembrance, Agnes came back. 

In fact, both Agnes and Georgette ignored their eliminations, suffering from the plague yet still insistent on winning — a truly inspiring representation of female perseverance.

“Obviously, [Agnes] gets the plague which is less than ideal, but [even] so she rallies,” McKinley said. “She pushes through … she’s not going to let anyone get in her way.”

This spectacular show was the work of producer Disha Cattamanchi ’28 and director Oliver Challay ’28. 

Cattamanchi spoke to the duo’s goals: “A lot of the theater companies at Stanford produce musicals — and while Oliver and I love singing … we are ‘Play’ people, and we want to bring back The Play to Stanford,” she wrote to The Daily. “We love how weird, atypical, funny and camp Stanford is and the people here are, and we want to bring plays to this campus that we think people will resonate with.”

I dare say they succeeded. We had MC Hosty Bodine running in rollerskates, trying to whip Agnes away to escape the plague; Alphonse dressed as a baby for the final choreographed number; Simone losing hope in humanity, becoming harsher and screaming, “Don’t tell people to not yell at me, you don’t know me!”

We even had the pope pleading with the audience to stick with the status-quo and continue supporting him, even though he might not be God’s chosen one.

Did I mention Raul almost whipping himself? Yes, I did. It needed to be mentioned again. We had Georgette and Raul dunking their heads into a bucket of water. Most spectacularly, Agnes somehow ended up as the winner and sole survivor of the entire production. This was simply the most I’ve laughed while at Stanford.

For those of you who unfortunately missed out, take a look at the show’s Instagram — and for those who did watch, get the closest you can to reliving this masterpiece.

A previous version of this article misspelled Oliver Challay’s name. That portion of the article has since been updated. The Daily regrets this error.

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