Grinning Cat Theater Company from Orlando Florida presented The Breakfast Reunion at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. The show revisits the cast of The Breakfast Club movie only now it is 25 years later and they meet the night before their High School reunion. One of the kids hit it big in the tech boom becoming a tech billionaire while others found local hometown jobs including becoming a teacher in the school where they were once held in detention.
Each character in turn unveiled their middle-aged angst. A marriage was on the rocks and jobs were not exactly gratifying. I kept trying to figure out who was Molly Ringwald all grown up. In general, I never married the older characters to who they were in high school. The show did keep me engaged. Like the movie, the characters were locked in the library for the duration. It is possible that the lock failing might have been intentional to force the former high school deviants to spend the time needed to rehash old times and show their new lives of normalcy.
Vulnerabilities from high school remained with each adult. The same fears and concerns just resurfaced in each new decade. Were friendships forged leading into the future? It seemed rather that these former students who exposed their weaknesses in detention 25 years prior were just ships passing in the night. When the doors locks were opened they each rushed out to the routines they had forged as adults.
I watched this show on my birthday which was a special treat. 1980s nostalgia drew me in. The years are passing for me so I felt it would be good to see how the high school princess, bad boy and weirdo had grown.