Imagine one character, a woman, has been savagely attacked, in front of her children. Imagine everything of human value has been torn away from her. As the play opens, it has been two years since she met with social workers. Two women (one experienced, the other a novice) are there to walk her through an unbelievably difficult, excruciating task. The survivor has nearly nothing to lose, her torture virtually without remedy. The other two women have discovered that their usual protocol has no practical use, in the midst of such catastrophe. The information we get is parsed out slowly, and when we discover why she is there, it’s stupefying.
Playwright Debbie Tucker Green has constructed an enigmatic, overwhelming test of humanity. Under the circumstances, choosing the unspoken is preferable to risking what will make matters worse. And nothing feels as interminable as silence. I should add here that Green lists the characters as: One, Two and Three. This leaves casting to the discretion of the director. It might be women. It might be men. It might be both. It also suggests that these three could be any of us. Number three is the afflicted, this much we know. She is furious. She ignores their insipid guardrails, livid with nothing to draw upon but deep, deep despair. We can’t imagine how these three will navigate this dilemma. When silence hangs like a verdict. When our utter inability to comfort chokes us.
Shannon McGrann, M. Denise Lee, and Kristen Lazarchick, under the sharp eye of Director Sasha Maya Ada deliver authentic, difficult performances, struggling with this minefield. McGrann, Lee, and Lazarchick are dropped into a tiger pit, the tension they create tighter than a drum. Good actors never give by halves, and they take us with them on this life-changing ordeal. As we might expect, Second Thought Theatre never takes the easy path. We’re expected to be as brave as the actors. STT it seems, thrives on harrowing, rapacious drama and we should expect nothing less.
Second Thought Theatre presented hang from October 16th-November 3rd, 2024. 3400 Blackburn St, Dallas, TX, United States, Texas. (214) 897-3091. info@secondthoughttheatre.com