[NEohioPAL] Review of "The Drowning Girls" at Cleveland Public Theatre

[Bob Abelman]

 'The Drowning Girls' delivers enthralling, ethereal theater 



 

"He took her breath away" takes on new meaning in Cleveland Public Theatre's regional premiere of "The Drowning Girls," written by Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson & Daniela Vlaskalic.

 

The play is based on the real-life murders of three vulnerable, lonely women by George Joseph Smith within a three year time span in the early 1900s.  He would briefly woo, unceremoniously wed, and inauspiciously drown his brides in a bathtub.  

 

The haunting retelling of what transpired on and around the moment of death is told by the wet women themselves - Alice (Natalie Green), Bessie (Sarah Kunchik) and Margaret (Jaime Bouvier).  

 

Each woman is dressed in period underclothing with lace and linen remnants of their wedding attire.  

 

Each woman jumps from first-person to third, as they offer both testimony and trial that leads to the eventual conviction of the man they love.

 

Each woman does this while soaking in the claw-foot bathtub that led to their untimely demise, their drenched hair clinging to their enraged faces.

 

The staging of a grim play like this could easily gravitate toward the macabre - and there are certainly moments in this production that employ horror genre conventions, such as ghostly blue backlighting (courtesy of Ben Gantose), ominous music (courtesy of Sam Fisher), and sudden movements erupting from stone cold silence.  The wonderful costumes are by Inda Blatch-Geib.

 

However, director Melissa Therese Crum embraces and embellishes all that is ethereal and slightly surreal in this story and places great faith in her three actors to do the waiflike storytelling that is required.  They do so remarkably well.

 

Individually, Green, Kunchik and Bouvier create interesting, even intriguing characters for the cadavers they are handed.   But these three drowned girls are at their best gracefully, fluidly moving and speaking as one during the most poignant and truly disturbing moments in the play.  The power of their conviction intensifies and the tragedy of their tale multiplies when they join forces. 

 

Performed in one act and in 70 minutes, "The Drowning Girls" is a small but splendid piece of theater.  

   

WHAT:            "The Drowning Girls"

WHERE:         Cleveland Public Theatre, 6415 Detroit Avenue, Gordon Square 

WHEN:            Through Saturday, May 3

TICKETS:        $12 - $18.  Call 216-631-2727 x501, or visit www.cptonline.org.   

 

 
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