Review: The Terrible (The New Colony)

  
  
The Terrible 

Written by Morgan McNaught 
The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee (map)
thru Nov 21  |  tix: $20-$25   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets  
  

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Hell is other people (with pens)

The New Colony presents

The Terrible

Review by Keith Glab

Touted by The New Colony as a dark comedy, The Terrible exudes the dark, but does not provide much laughter. A depressed girl named Woolfe (Jessica London-Shields) videotapes her staged suicide as performance art and awakens to a hellish afterlife isolated in a room with two other tortured souls. The similarities between Jean Paul Sartre’s No Exit and Morgan McNaught‘s The Terrible are inescapable, and McNaught’s new play struggles to add to the impact of Sartre’s influential classic.

These three condemned persons even arrive in their purgatory for similar reasons as Sartre’s characters do: drowning, infidelity, and abandonment of a child. Unlike Sartre’s trio, McNaught’s only get on each others’ nerves a bit, with the real torture coming literally at the hand of a pleasant psychologist named Fred (Andrew Hobgood). Fred wields a click-pen that administers sonic torture and forces his patients to re-live the worst moments of their lives. Hobgood’s melodic voice lends his character added creepiness and also extra complexity; his Fred legitimately wants the condemned souls to benefit from his "sessions" rather than merely inflict pain for its own sake.

We don’t learn overly much about each character’s backstory, as they repeat a narrow range of actions – both in the afterlife and in the reenactment of their past life – for a full hour. We certainly empathize with the monotony of the torment, so any goal of making the audience uncomfortable gets achieved.

McNaught’s script provides some interesting fodder for thematic development. Does the fact that a pen gets used as an implementation of torture comment on a writer’s power to harm others with words? Do the three inmates wait so long to revolt against Fred because they unwittingly crave the need to be punished? Regrettably, these thematic jewels are only hinted at, and director Jesse Roth exhibits little interest in uncovering them.

The climactic scenes feature desperate actions and satisfying role reversals which do prove gripping. The tedious setup of this action fails to provide clear logistics and character motivations, however, rendering the ultimate resolution less satisfying than it should be.

With underdeveloped characters, unmemorable performances, and practically no humor to speak of, The Terrible fails to convey any great message regarding human psychology or behavior. While this play isn’t quite terrible, it’s not something you’d want to be forced to re-live repeatedly.

Rating: ★★

The Terrible continues through November 21st at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm.  Tickets are $20-$25, and are available online at Tixato.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More info at TheNewColony.org.  (Running time: 75 minutes without intermission)

Photos by Evan Hanover

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artists

cast

Chris Fowler (Christopher), Andrew Hobgood (Fred), Jessica London-Shields (Woolfe), Shariba Rivers (Gertrude)

behind the scenes

Jesse Roth (director), William Boles (scenic design), Marisa Allison (costume design), Claire Chrzan (lighting design), Morgan Lake (sound design), Emily Breyer (props), Jon Beal (violence coach), Hutch Pimentel (dramaturg), Michael Chancellor (technical director), Justin Snyder (technical director, rigging), Krista Mickelson (production manager), Katrina Dion (asst. director), Jared Godding (asst. lighting), Monica M. Brown (stage manager), Clarissa Jugo (asst. stage manager), Stephanie Shum (producer), Evan Hanover (photographer)

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