 |
Contact BHG:
4041 Park Ave.
Minneapolis, Mn 55407
(612) 418-4663
|
|
 |
The Burning House Group
Review: "3 Parts Dead"
3 Parts Dead
By Quinton Skinner
Telling a good ghost story is a tricky task. The tale's internal
logic has to be taut for the spooky bits to bite, and the characters
have to be drawn in such as way that we ympathize with their
supernatural travails. Local playwright Alan M. Berks's new
3 Parts Dead delivers on both scores, and this staging ratchets
up the heebie-jeebies with chilling invention. The action concerns
Peter (Matt Guidry), an exjunkie who has just bought a house
with his daughter in tow (he's coming down from his wild years
and generally avoiding the mother of his child). Pete writes
letters home to his brother Jonathan (David Allen Baker), who
reads them on the far side of the stage while Peter proceeds
to gradually go nuts. The lighting design (credited to Guidry
and the company) favors plenty of darkness and shadow, with
flashlight beams cutting through the murk while the characters
move about ominously. Peter's hold on his sanity is hardly
reinforced with the arrival of Mason (Randal Berger), who moves
with agonized contortions and introduces himself by menacingly
wielding a screwdriver. It turns out that Jonathan was always
the stable nebbish of the family, while Peter was the charismatic
love-magnet with a sideline in otherworldly visions. As with
most families, these two remain true to type, and eventually
Jonathan feels the need to intercede. Along the way Guidry
and Berger transform boards and cardboard cartons into a creepy
approximation of a rundown house, and a dawning sense of dread
accompanies the realization that daughter Amalia never seems
to be around. To reveal more would be to spoil any number of
surprises, but suffice it to say that Berks's elliptical dramatic
structure and jigsaw character development draw the audience
in with an appealing sense of dread. Noah Bremer directs, and
the ensemble at times literally throws itself into the work,
employing a lot of movement and eerie physical effects (one
of which I could barely believe I was seeing). While the road
to the ending is at times confusing, matters come together
with an appropriately unsettling series of events, confirming
that the best ghost stories are about the shadows that occupy
the forbidden corners of our own minds.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|