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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Slasher
Then again, the 90-minute comedy disembowels most of its laughs from out of horror movie cliches, which are in plenteous supply under the direction of Emma Glose (she co-founded the group with Spencer Lawton). So it wouldn't hurt if you'd been exposed to some cinematic violence. Cringeworthy laughter is mixed with the subtle desperation of the main female characters on stage, who follow a dark a path, led by their sanguine director. Hailey Medrano is very fine as Sheena, a college student dragged into the gaping maw of movie-making, though her own mother has a painful link to the director of Bloodbath. Maida Dippel is nightmarishly comical and possessed as Frances, the mother. And Ross Rubright is transcendently creepy/funny as Marc, a director driven to extremes as one element after another in his project gets axed by fate or disloyalty, or just by actors who can't follow travel directions. The story is set in Round Rock, Texas, and Cameron Schoeck is terrific as Marc's dorky, ride-or-die production assistant. Meredith Lyons provides a bemused contrarian voice as Sheena's little sister Hildy. And, in a head-spinning series of other roles, Katie Orr makes the whole thing legit (as modern theatre) as a right-wing activist and a girl who dies a grisly death in the movie–nd as a gravel-voiced real estate agent who also dies a grisly death in the movie. Mr. Rubright, as Marc, lays out the core rules for slasher narratives, as if he were betting the house on it. But those rules are pleasantly subverted by a stage play that unexpectedly points its finger back at us. Ms. Dippel, as the mom, is like some backwoods witch–though her magic potion scene is totally backwards in a way I cannot reveal. The very complete costumes are by Mr. Lawton. The horror that gradually infiltrates our own souls comes from a collective neglect of the women's rights movement in recent American history. (Again, this is all from 2009, and set in 2007.) Slasher grabs its darkest material from real life to reanimate a steady undertone of anxiety. But that's just the "right hand" of it. With a left hand bent on laughter, Slasher whips up a range of scantily clad girls, real and imaginary, physical and philosophical, who shed their stage blood for a very worthy cause. It's funny and frightening, as the story hacks its way through a hundred woman-shaped obstacles amidst a down-at-heels realism. I still don't like horror. But I definitely like this. Slasher runs through November 10, 2024, at Greenfinch Theatre, 2525 South Jefferson Ave., St. Louis MO. For tickets .nd information, please visit www.greenfinchstl.com Cast: Production Staff: |
