The Confessional
Presented by: The Cohort Theatre Company
Writer: Jayson Akridge
Director: Jayson Akridge and Gloria Dossett
Summary:
Mild-mannered high school social studies teacher Stanley Prentiss (Kevin Stidham) confesses to murdering his neighbor, but police can’t find a body and there doesn’t seem to be any evidence the woman ever existed and they think it must be a hoax.
Something about Prentiss gets under the skin of detective Bill Bryce (author and director Jason Akridge), however, who senses in the suspect the same evil he recognized in a serial killer named Martin Hobbs whom he tracked and captured. What’s more, Prentiss claims to have committed Hobbs’ murders and knows details only the killer would know, leading Bryce to question whether he arrested the right man.
Meanwhile, Prentiss threatens Bryce’s love interest, Detective Carter Munroe (Kelly Levander) forcing Bryce to take action to stop Prentiss. He pursues the case and questions Sandra Beatty (Ashley Larsen), a teacher at the same school, who can’t believe he could have committed such a crime. In a game of cat and mouse, the question for everyone becomes, “what really is true.”
Akridge’s script plot is fairly decent and gives a number of nice twists, but is laden with clichés and false-sounding lines between Bryce and officer Troy Brown (Joe Levander). The interesting subject matter can’t overcome the rather wooden acting, either. There isn’t any chemistry between Bryce and Munroe, and no palpable tension between Bryce and Prentiss. Most of the lines sound like they are being read (actors don’t even look at each other sometimes while reciting the lines).
Highlights:
• Nice twists and exploration of evil
Lowlights:
• Noted above.
Christians might also like to know:
• Language
• Bloody scalp prop
• Munroe leaves her husband to pursue a relationship with the already-divorced Bryce
Fringe Tassels Awarded: 2
VENUE #1: CSV Cultural and Edu. Cntr. Milagro
See it again Sat 29 @ 7 Sun 30 @ 2
--Lauren Yarger
I just ran across this review of my favorite show from Fringe 2009, and I'm miffed. Did you just give away a crucial plot twist in what feels to me to be a rather prissy "Christians ought to know" section? I believe Dante describes a dedicated level in Hell for theatre critics who include spoilers in their reviews, particularly in the service of prissiness.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a tip for your more sensitive Christian readers: if a fake bloody scalp gives one pause, one might want to avoid the Old Testament entirely! Come on, Lauren. Evil is violent: ergo, plays about evil are plays about violence. And this one was terrific, providing a gripping account of evil's presence in the modern world. The audience was on the edge of its seats the night we attended. I heard audible gasps several times as reversal after reversal caught us entirely off guard. I attended "The Confessional" with my friend who is a chaplain with the MTA, and she felt very strongly that it was the most spiritually relevant play she'd seen performed in the city in her 48 years of theatre-going. Does that sound like stilted, cliched writing to you? It certainly didn't to us.
Were we even watching the same play? It's hard to believe we were! You do know "The Confessional" was initially produced at an evangelical university, don't you? And you DO know, I hope, that actors DON'T always need to look at each other when they speak, any more than people do in real life? Good heavens. You've written some great reviews in the past, but lately I think if a show has any representations of unpleasantness in it, you pan it out of hand. Perhaps mystery/suspense is not your genre of choice. I suggest you do future playwrights in this genre a favor and give their shows a miss if you are going to assume that unpleasantness is invariably gratuitous, which seems to be the implicit point emanating from your Fringe reviews when taken as a whole.