In a South American country where a brutal dictator
as just been disposed, a lawyer brings home a Good Samaritan, who rescued him
from car trouble. Unbeknownst to the
lawyer, the helpful man turns out to be the brutal captor, torturer and rapist
of his wife.
 |
| Mark Staley, Ken Bolden, Adrienne Wehr |
As you can imagine, this plot leads to an evening of
intense, emotional drama.
And the strong cast is well up to the task. Adrienne Wehr (as the wife), Mark Staley (as
her husband) and Ken Bolden (as the sadistic torturer) wring the raw emotions
from the script brilliantly.
Where the production seems to falter is with the
direction.
Director Maggie Balsley had chosen to open the play
with a video projection of the first scene between Wehr and Staley (all while
the two actors move around the stage in a kind of “dumb show”). I had no clue what it was supposed to mean.
Consequently, I probably didn’t pay as close attention to the next few
vignettes as I was trying to figure out the projection.
For a play that addresses such high-charged issues,
there was a lot of sitting and talking.
Staley sits at a table talking to Bolden. Then Staley goes to the balcony and sits and
talks with Wehr. Then Wehr comes in and
sits at a table talking to Bolden.
Center stage got very little use.
What made matters worse is the balcony is far stage
right behind a large sofa. Very often
all I could see of Wehr and Staley were their heads peeking over the top of the
sofa.
Then the production ends with more baffling video
(after a long pause for costume changes).
Designer Paul A. Shaw has once again transformed the
small Off The Wall stage into a completely new look. Unfortunately, Balsley groundplan does more
harm then good.
But the cast preservers and doesn’t allow the odd
videos or the stagnant blocking prevent them from delivering memorable
performances.
Death
and the Maiden continues through May 19.
Tickets: www.insideoffthewall.com
