Ava Moore

Masque & Gown’s fall mainstage production of “Parfumerie” premiered last weekend. Students, staff and community members packed Wish Theater for three sold-out shows.

The romantic comedy, written by Miklós László and adapted by E.P. Dowdall, was directed by EJ Esmas ’27. Esmas studied the 1937 script to find and bring out the comedic moments in what otherwise would have been a more somber show, emphasizing trust as a crucial consideration throughout the process.

“Is this a comedy? Is this a drama? Is this a rom-com?” Esmas said. “A comedy is a show that takes a lot of trust. Because even down to the individual level, you have to trust in your own ability to deliver the jokes, but also you have to trust the audience even to get the joke. You have to trust your scene partner to help you construct the joke.”

Nathan Bukowski-Thall ’26, who played George Horvath, the lead love interest, valued the opportunity to experiment with humor throughout the three performances. He adjusted his performances based on audience reactions from opening night.

“I realized that there was stuff that I was not expecting [the audience] to find super funny that I in the other performances added emphasis on,” Bukowski-Thall said. “I’d never really done that before in a show.… It’s often, for a performance, very clear to me what the audience would laugh at. But that wasn’t the case [here].”

The play unfolds entirely in a Hungarian perfume shop without the audience ever stepping out of the store. Set designer Tolly Kaiser ’28 built the balcony and staircase featured throughout the show to simulate the stockroom above the store. Even though the play hinges on people coming in and out of the store, Kaiser chose not to build a door, preferring a simple open doorway.

“I just wanted something that would feel fluid and let the actors actually move like they were in a theater, not like they were actually in a house,” Kaiser said.

While not every piece of the set is historically accurate, Kaiser hopes the audience felt as if they had stepped into a real perfume shop in 20th-century Budapest.

“When everything was built, the lights were on, the props were there and the actors were there, I felt like I was actually watching the life of this perfume shop. And it wasn’t just like I was watching a play about that,” Kaiser said.

At the heart of the story is the romance. After all, the original script inspired Nora Ephron’s 1998 film “You’ve Got Mail,” the 1940 film “The Shop Around the Corner” and the 1963 musical “She Loves Me.”

“But the meat of the show, what actually happens, [is] very Christmas. A lot of forgiveness. Really surprising love reveals.… And the romantic leads, it’s like … they’re sparring partners,” Esmas said. “That’s what really drew me to this show.”

The audience is introduced to the rhythm of the perfume shop with the opening number “Hungarian Dance No. 5,” composed by Johannes Brahms. The seven employees bustle about to address neverending customer requests for luxury scents and soaps. The second act has a similar scene, where the actors move in time with the music, catching gift boxes thrown across the stage and closely examining each product, immersing the audience in the hectic holiday rush.

Bukowski-Thall recalled this moment as one of the most memorable in the show.

“The waltz was awesome. It was strange. It was very, very artsy, but I thought it was very fun to do, and the audience really liked it, and it really set the scene,” Bukowski-Thall said. “I thought that was definitely one of the most powerful tech choices that were made.”

Alex Wert ’27, who attended Friday’s performance, also commented on the scene’s creativity.

“The little movement they did, when they spun in a circle—I was mesmerized,” Wert said. “I love going to the Masque & Gown productions because [the students] are really entertaining and so talented.”

When reflecting on his experience in the production, Bukowski-Thall expressed hope that “Parfumerie” would help people recognize the talent and dedication of Masque & Gown’s members.

“I hope people learn to respect Masque & Gown [and that] they can do incredible things,” Bukowski-Thall said. “I feel like a lot of people lose some feelings because … it’s not an official play, a department production, that I feel like people more often are inclined to take more seriously. But, I hope that after seeing this production, people really feel like, ‘Oh, Masque & Gown did something really cool.’”

Margaret Unger contributed to this report.