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Psalms of a Questionable Nature
By Marisa Wegrzyn
Directed by Tara Mallen
Produced by Rivendell Theatre Ensemble
At Live Bait Theatre
3914 N. Clark Street
Chicago, IL
Call 773-334-7728, tickets $20 – 415 students/seniors
Thursdays & Fridays at 8pm
Saturdays at 3 & 8 pm
Special Monday industry performance, June 16 at 8pm
Running time is 75 minutes without intermission
Through June 29, 2008
Eerie, riveting thrill is actors’ showcase
Rivendell Theatre Ensemble has mounted Chicago playwright Marisa Wegrzyn’s “Psalms of a Questionable Nature” at Live Bait Theater through June 29. “Psalms” is a scary and heart-pounding thriller that will grab you and keep you in suspense throughout. Featuring strong, emotionally wrenching work from Mierka Girten and Jenny Strubin, “Psalms” is a finely staged and excellently directed thriller in the Hitchcock tradition.
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Stepsisters Greta (Mierka Girten) and Moo (Jenny Strubin) meet to decide what to do with their dead parents’ decrepit house. Greta’s mother married Moo’s father; the two stepsisters met here. Greta has inherited the house and wants to sell it for the cash while Moo wants to use this opportunity to get to know Greta. They wonder down to the basement that is covered completely with plastic sheets. Rat cages, chemistry tools, record books clutter this basement laboratory. What has gone on here? Nervously, Moo tries to explain away this room. As the tension builds, we learn about Greta—is a former local TV anchor and recent prison inmate and Moo is a fire-started and social misfit. We also learn that the deceased couple may not have died in a fiery auto accident as reported.. We also quickly realize that Moo is a simple tomboy type who is obsessed with her parents and their basement ‘work.’ Was the lab use to create deadly chemicals?
In this weirdly twisted psychological thriller, we see the two women learning to deal both with each other and the events of their parent’s death. The tension builds as the two start dealing with the mixed feelings they have for each other. The strange basement lab starts to reveal long buried truths about the parents and the two sisters. Once Moo reveals the true nature of the lab, emotions run high as both realize that they may not make it out of the basement alive. I can not reveal more. Trust me on this, playwright Marisa Wegrzyn and director Tara Mallen have structured and staged “Psalms” to capture and scare us as only live theatre can with this fine play. The 75 minutes aptly launches us into the psychological trauma of the stepsisters. This show will rattle you. Jenny Strubin and Mierka Girten reach down into the depths of their souls in their performances. This is a scary thriller.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: May 31, 2008
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