[NEohioPAL] Review of "Veronica's Room" at CVLT

[Bob Abelman]

'Veronica's' secrets deliciously revealed in CVLT production

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 11/9/12

 

 

All you really need to know about Ira Levin's play "Veronica's Room," currently on stage at the Chagrin Valley Little Theater in Chagrin Falls, is that it was written by Ira Levin. 

 

The playwright is best known for writing the 1960s psychological thriller "Rosemary's Baby," which became a cult film classic.  While later works by Levin, such as "The Stepford Wives" and "Deathtrap," dip into that well for their inspiration and many of their disturbing storytelling conventions, "Veronica's Room" borrows-no, shamelessly absconds-each and every facet of the film's well-honed formula for creepiness. One need not squint or wait for the light to be just right to see the blatant parallels.

 

True to form, "Veronica's Room" offers up a young naïve woman who has no clue what she is about to get herself into.  The play supplies solicitous and kindly old folks who are so down to earth and genteel that there surely must be something terribly wrong with them.  Our heroine not only falls for their ruse but continues to plummet ever deeper as the play progresses.  And, of course, there is that moment of realization when it is very apparent that someone in the room is maniacally insane but it is not quite clear just who that someone happens to be.

 

What was just revealed are not secrets or storyline spoilers.  Not for "Veronica's Room."  In fact, the playwright himself goes to great lengths to explicitly expose these now-classic ploys at the start of the play, as if offering a nod of acknowledgement to those in the audience who recognize them and to bring those who don't up to speed. 

 

At the rise of the play, it is 1973 and we are in the bedroom in an isolated suburban mansion outside of Boston.  In walk Boston University student Susan (Natalie Dolezal) and her date, Larry (Bendon Berns), who were dining at a restaurant earlier that evening and approached by a kind, elderly Irish couple (Lisa-Freebairn-Tarr and Craig Gifford).  It seems that Susan bears a remarkable resemblance to Veronica, the daughter of the family for whom they work.  Veronica died of TB more than thirty years ago but her mother, now old and dying herself, is delirious and thinks that a young Veronica is still alive and in her room.  

 

Won't Susan be a dear and come back to the house, make believe she is Veronica for just a few  moments, and give the old woman one last moment of joy?  Yeah.  Right.  

 

Let the games begin.

 

As the first act unfolds, it is very tempting to stand, raise a fist at Susan and shout "Good lord, woman, haven't you seen 'Rosemary's Baby'?  Run, for Pete's sake!"   Your patience and due diligence will pay off as the unexpected twists and turns in the second act will have even those with a high thriller-IQ sucked into the vortex of this play and this fine CVLT production of it.   

 

Director Lauren Bryant understands the rules of engagement for this play and, by drawing a thin and increasingly transparent line between reality and insanity, has put together a very entertaining thriller.  

 

Lisa-Freebairn-Tarr and Natalie Dolezal give particularly strong performances and keep the audience guessing.  While their assorted histrionics at first seem over the top, given the in-your-face intimacy of the River Street Playhouse, one quickly adjusts to the melodrama.  In fact, the music that underscores much of this production helps transport the audience into this disconcerting world and threaten to never let us out.  Another trick of the trade from "Rosemary's Baby."

                

Sit back or, more likely, sit at the edge of your seat and enjoy the film, uh, play.

 

"Veronica's Room" continues through November 10 at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre's River Street Playhouse, 56 River Street, Chagrin Falls.  For tickets, which are $10, call 440-247-8955 or visit www.cvlt.org.
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