BY NATE LEWIS ’27

It was a dark and chilly Monday night, and I was in a mad dash towards the Janet Kinghorn Bernard Theater, where I was supposed to watch the play I was assigned to review, Matt & Ben, directed by Sydney Baig ’26 and Barbara Yang ’27. As I hurried into Studio A, carelessly forgetting to take off my shoes first, I was amazed by how well designed the set was; the scenic designer, Elena Chawla ’26, managed to build a very impressive set using just a table, a couch, and many different types of magazines scattered everywhere. This might sound meaningless to some people, but when you walk into a theater, the first thing you will notice is how the stage is designed, and that design will give tons of information, including the setting of the story, the tone, and what the characters are like, which in this case is unorganized. 

While I could spend the rest of this article gushing over the scenic design, my editor is probably expecting me to talk about the actual story. In Matt & Ben, we are introduced to our two main characters, the famous actors and screenwriters Matt Damon (Caroline Zaikowski ’29) & Ben Affleck (Willow Forbes ’26), pre-fame, who are gifted with a script of the movie that will turn them into A-listers, Good Will Hunting. Ben is all but eager for them to use the script for their own gain, but Matt is more skeptical of the idea of using a script that they themselves didn’t actually write. This is where the central conflict of the story arises. Underneath the tropes common in most slacker comedies, there is a deep philosophical debate over integrity, success, privilege, and friendship. As the debate between Matt and Ben continues, we learn more and more about their shared past, including that they both entered a talent show together, the fact that Ben slept with Matt’s prom date, or them practicing eye contact for a scene for class, all of which helps to reinforce what we know about the characters, with Ben presenting as unserious, confident, and distant, while Matt is more open, anxious, and stubborn. 

While I do have to credit the writers, Mindy Kaling & Brenda Withers, for making such a funny story, I don’t believe I would’ve laughed as much with this play as I did without the great acting of Zaikowski ’29 and Forbes ’26. The way a character moves in a scene is very important to both understanding them and having them engage with the audience, and that is something that the actors do particularly well, with Forbes being able to manically move around the stage during the flashbacks and lean back with a relaxed posture, helping to bring alive Ben’s frat boy persona. Meanwhile, Zaikowski acts very jittery and aggressive during Matt’s arguments with Ben, making Matt into the sort of straight man of the duo without making him dull or a stick up, which is very important when making a comedy. 

Photos by Logan Waugh

***

Nate Lewis ’27 is a staff writer for the Skidmore Theater Living Newsletter