Reviewed
by Will Stackman
Unlike
the original London 1998 presentation of Bryony Lavery's intellectual thriller, "Frozen", which took place on a
bare stage with three lonely chairs or the quite spare Tony-nominated version
which played on Broadway last year, the New Rep's current impressive production
has a simple yet sophisticated set created by IRNE & Norton winning Boston
designer Richard Wadsworth Chambers. The stage is covered with a several inches of fine
white sand which reads in this context as snow. Each of the three actors has a
small square rostrum towards the rear on which sits a single black chair and a
few props. These platforms are framed by black pipes which rise to meet a
transparent tilted ceiling looming overhead. The space is expertly lit by
veteran designer Karen Perlow, who teaches at M.I.T., doing her first show in this
space.The effect is equal to any seen at the American Repertory Theatre or the
Huntington Theatre Company, but without overwhelming the play. The abstract
setting provides award-winning director Adam Zahler and his trio of first-rate
actors a springboard for a mesmerizing examination of "Frozen"'s
harrowing story.
As
striking as the staging is, this examination of evil and forgiveness would be
nothing without the tightly focused skills of the cast. Even though the script
is constructed mostly from a series of monologues with interaction between
pairs of characters at critical moments, the ensemble creates a set of
characters focused on the author's principal query. Award-winning actress Nancy
E. Carroll plays
Nancy Shirley, the mother of two young girl's, one of whom, Rhona, is abducted
and twenty years later found to have been molested and smothered by a serial
killer. That repulsive role, Ralph Wantage, falls to Bates Wilder, seen at the New Rep in its old
home in Newton in "Jerusalem", "No Exit" (as Lucky), and
"Scapin." Carroll was previously seen there as Mrs. Loveit and the
Witch in their very successful Sondheim revivals. The third actor is Adrianne
Hewlett playing
Agnetha Gottmundsdottir, an American psychiatrist of Icelandic extraction who's
researching the depths of mental impairment which results in serial murder. A
professor of Theatre Arts at Brandeis, she was seen recently at the Vineyard
Playhouse, has played in Chicago and around the country, and began her Boston
career with Speakeasy's "Snakebit" and BTW's "Bug." Each
character is sharply drawn, but not after the fashion which such potential
stereotypes might appear in current film or television scripts that have
reveled in such material. Lavery, with a long career in England in several
capacities, has chosen this subject for its moral implications.
The
show does not however become preachy. Rather the audience is confronted with
three flawed human beings. Wantage is played as a rather peculiar fellow whose
abusive childhood led to the development of his murderous tendencies and
disturbed everyday behavior. Versatile Wilder is a very convincing villain.
While outwardly stone-cold, his actual fragility is evident, at first in
encounters with the psychiatrist, then in a confrontation with Mrs. Shirley.
The latter meeting leads to the play's inevitable conclusion. Nancy Shirley
starts out as an almost stereo typed English "mum," but develops into
woman obsessed with her lost daughter and changed in several ways by the eventual
discovery of her daughter's fate. Carroll plays these developments and the
character's ultimate quandary with conviction. Hewlett's psychiatrist has to
function on several levels. Agnetha Gottmundsdottir is outwardly a highly
competent professional, delivering the play's scientific rationale quite
convincingly. Inwardly, this woman has a secret grief gnawing at her, which is
somewhat peripheral to the main argument, but tangentially connected enough to
make the final conclusion more interesting. Whether her thesis, "Serial
Killing; A Forgivable Act," ultimately holds up is for the audience to
decide, unlike the simplistic formulas found in televised crime dramas or
movies. The end might have been written or played more ambiguously, but certainly
supports the core of the play.
Zahler,
has made the most of his actors' individual talents, helped by excellent
costume choices as usual by Frances Nelson McSherry. He's found unique uses for the
"snow" which covers the stage as well. The show also benefits from an
original score and soundscape by Jeffery Alan Jones, who has a variety of
significant local credits. His last effort was Speakeasy's "Theatre
District" in the fall. Like past New Rep productions, this effort has a
high attention to detail in all aspects, while focusing on first-rate
performances. Moving to the larger space at the Arsenal Center for the Arts has
only increased the company's potential. Their continuing ability to attract the
best talent in the area bodes well for the rest of the season, which ends with
a large-scale production of "Ragtime" featuring award-winner Leigh
Barrett.