One might say that 3 hours is far too long for a high school theater production of the novella-turned-play “Candide.” They would be right. This past February 6 and 8, Candide took to the stage (and lingered for a while) in the upstairs theater as the ETHS theater department’s winter play. The play was directed by Ms. Monica Lani, who was helped by assistant director and junior Silas Smith.

The story follows the journey of a young 18th-century German boy named Candide as he travels from Europe to Latin America, all while enduring immense hardship and suffering. Candide is banished from his castle home, separated from his love, betrayed and attacked. He insists throughout it all that everything must be for the best because we live in “the best of all possible worlds,” as taught by the great Dr. Pangloss, a bubbly philosopher played by senior Nat Sotnick. Pangloss’s recurring motif of blind optimism goes on to become a major theme in the story.

Candide himself is played by senior Zach Cutter, who realizes by the end of the play that he must take practical measures to achieve real happiness, famously quoting, “We must cultivate our garden,” as a symbolic knock on the deterministic philosophy that Dr. Pangloss had been preaching throughout the play. Except that iconic moment actually wasn’t in ETHS’s version of the play, because it was adapted as one of many changes that ultimately derailed ETHS’s spin on the already-established tale.

This production of Candide was satirical. “[It was] created to embarrass and discredit institutions in which hate and prejudice are embedded,” according to Ms. Lani. That being said, the interspersed moments of humor felt disjointed from their purpose, and in some cases the jokes just fell flat. “The syphilis joke was not funny,” said senior Eilina Daood. “They were too busy trying to be funny.”

“The show was not good. It was hard to follow what was going on a lot of the time, and the length took away from it,” said an anonymous ETHS theater affiliate, in reference to the many flashback scenes and awkward fourth wall breaks by Smith, the assistant director, that seemed to insist on being a part of the show.

Despite questionable writing and directing choices, the show’s actors did an excellent job that delighted audience members. A few notable performers included Zach Cutter as Candide, Jane MorrisHoffer as The Old Woman with one Buttock, Nathan Kane as Martin the Pessimist, and Xander Mroczek as the Grand Inquisitor.

“Some of the Actors like Nat, Jane, Nathan and Zack were super funny and never failed to make me laugh,” said junior Elliot Pratt. “It was a good show but there were some parts where I was a little confused about what was going on.”

Lani’s directing also had its moments. Near the end of the show, Candide was forced to choose his outlook on life, when Dr. Pangloss stood on one end of the stage dressed in blue and Martin the Pessimist stood opposite him clad in red. The color symbolism and obvious juxtaposition provided a moment of clarity in an otherwise convoluted play, and the use of visual elements was creative and effective in drawing the audience into a key moment. “The part where he chose between them was really cool,” added Pratt.

All in all, the most memorable aspect for most audience members was unfortunately the three-hour duration. As senior Micah Cherkasky called it, Candide was “an example of quantity over quality.”