Bryony Lavery's Frozen At Philadelphia's InterAct Theatre Company

Theater: InterAct Theatre Company
Show Title: Frozen
Opened: April 9, 2008
Seen: April 9, 2008
Reviewer: Karin Suni

InterAct Theatre Company has taken a clear step toward fulfilling their mission statement to “dramatize complex and controversial issues” in staging the Philadelphia premiere of Bryony Lavery’s 2004 Tony Award Nominated play, Frozen. In it we are presented with a stark look at every parent’s worst nightmare- the abduction, abuse and murder of a child. Though the subject matter gets a great deal of coverage on screen especially with the abundance of police/legal procedurals on television, there have been fewer stage representations and those that do exist have primarily focused on the family and how it is affected by the tragedy. While this is present in Frozen, it is not the only vantage point from which to view the events.

Lavery gives us three windows into the situation. There's Nancy, a woman who has fought against despair and resignation for the 20 years that her daughter, Rhona, has been missing. There's Ralph, a man with a disturbing past who is ultimately convicted of Rhona's abduction and murder, and finally, Agnetha, a researcher surrounded by sadness who studies the psychology of serial killers. When Agnetha arrives in England to interview Ralph to further her research, questions of forgiveness, conscience, remorse, responsibility and compassion begin to weigh heavily on all three. As the core of Agnetha's topic, one overarching question is that of the origin of criminal acts. Are those who commit unspeakable crimes truly evil or have they been stunted in their development so that they cannot see their actions as wrong? While the message is clear that both can exist and there is a difference between "sin" and "illness", if you are looking for a definitive answer, you will not find it here. Instead, the events leave you on a razor’s edge between believing that Ralph’s deeds were intended evil on one side and were symptoms of neurological abnormality on the other with solid evidence for both opinions.

The small cast had a great deal to carry on their shoulders to keep the play from becoming too clinical or too maudlin, and they managed it quite well. Catharine K. Slusar as Agnetha clearly presents a woman at war with herself, never quite sure where the line between removed researcher and caring human being should rest. Nancy undergoes a variety of changes and developments throughout the show, and Mary Martello's performance makes them all feel like natural and understandable growth that comes from the character and not from the script. Jeb Kreager's Ralph was laudable as he had an astonishing combination of creepy and innocent that repulsed and pulled you in at the same time.

The innovative, yet simple set design and use of space, especially the sliding back-wall and projected images, allows for a multitude of changeable locations (including Nancy’s garden, Agnetha’s apartment and a school hall just to name a few) while always carrying through the almost claustrophobic feel of the prison, which mirrors the sparse and impersonal interiors of Ralph’s mind. Even in the brightest moments- both in terms of the lighting and the script, the stage kept the sense of a cold chill helping to perpetuate the frozen, icy metaphor implied by the title.

As with all opening nights, there were a few glitches to iron out such as a haltingly remembered line or the not-quite-smooth operation of the sliding wall, but these were simply minor moments that did not detract significantly from the production and I am sure will be worked out with a few more performances. Some may find the structure of the play a bit jarring as locales and timeframes change somewhat haphazardly from scene to scene especially toward the beginning, but little is lost in terms of content or character development.

Upon hearing the plotline of this play, it’s hard to imagine describing it as touching. Usually this word is reserved for syrupy greeting cards and sentimental made-for-tv movies, but in this case, I feel I can reclaim the word from this indignity and use it in its truest sense. This production takes three characters and instead of just having their stories connect, really puts them into contact with one another and in doing so, brings them in contact with the audience. This removes our usual protective blanket of detachment and forces audience members to think on these characters, their circumstances and the underlying issues with a level of compassion and consideration that we might not have at the end of the most recent episode of Law & Order: SVU or Without A Trace. And while I, for one, do not always want such raw contact with such heavy emotions and thoughts, in the case of InterAct’s production of Frozen, it is just as it should be.

The play runs through May 4th.

*Click on the images for photo details*

Agnetha (Catharine K. Slusar) and Ralph (Jeb Kreager)

Agnetha (Catharine K. Slusar) and Nancy (Mary Martello)

Catharine K. Slusar (as Agnetha) and director Whit MacLaughlin