“Standouts Abigail Duclos, BC ’23, as Darcy Snelgrave and Kiana Mottahedan, CC ’26, as Morse both are able breathe life into the sometimes stiffly written dialogue, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role. After the show, murmurs went around the audience, in disbelief that Mottahedan, with her small stature and voice, was not really a 12-year-old girl. She does a masterful job of balancing Morse’s innocence with the disturbing scenes she is placed in: her open facial expressions never quite let the audience forget she is a child, even when she is being sexualized by a grown man or directing Darcy and Bunce’s intimate moments.”
An audience favorite because of her lovable charm and mischievous nature, Morse had our jaws on the floor when she, a 12-year-old character, walked Bunce and Darcy Snelgrave through a thoroughly intimate exercise in what we will only refer to here as a consensual adult activity all while Mr. Snelgrave was blindfolded and tied to a chair in the same room. Explaining how she, a mere tot, knew such lude information, she said, very nonchalantly, that she had been schooled through keyholes. Needless to say, we understood and appreciated this reference, and actress Kiana Mottahedan perfectly embodied the proud sexual knowledge of a tween.
“As the Baroness consults, The Book, which all previous presidents have used to navigate the problems of their terms, she is horrified to find that there is no entry for her issue. Her exclamation, “I can’t afford a scandal this early in my presidency!” stirred raucous laughter in the audience”
“Mottahedan’s Shafik is a standout among an already strong cast. The character is a full-throated villain who walks the line between cartoonish and uncomfortably realistic … Mottahedan leads some of the show’s best songs, like the earworm “Follow by the Book,” which she performs with delightful aplomb and perfectly-honed comedic flair. Her proper, prissy manner of speaking is highly reminiscent of a certain villain from the “Harry Potter” series notorious for suppressing student dissent—if only her characteristic matching blazer and pencil skirt were pastel pink.”
Kiana Mottehedan (CC ‘26) took a different approach as Hero, often stone-faced and silent as she faced her supposed lover Claudio. Her muted presence felt purposeful, as if to demonstrate her lack of agency and the play’s conflation of love with conquest.