A review of Frozen

City Circle - Have you ever looked into the eyes of a serial killer? Not in some hokey Hannibal Lecter film. In person?

Go see City Circle's production of Frozen for an idea of what you’d see staring back at you.

Though its subject matter may be half-CSI and half-Lifetime movie, Frozen is mostly unfettered by salacious gore or maudlin histrionics. Credit for avoiding these pitfalls goes to the playwright, the director, and the actors, who conspire beautifully in this production to create honest, convincing characters in extraordinary circumstances.

If you drew a picture of Frozen's plot, it would be a Venn diagram. The sparse, blue-white set even reflects this structure with its overlapping platforms.

In the center, the principal character, Ralph, resides. He is a serial murderer and pedophile. He kills ten-year-old Rhona, whose mother, Nancy, occupies the stage left circle. At stage right, a third circle is populated by Agnetha, a slightly neurotic American academic at work on her thesis, “Serial Killing—A Forgivable Act?” who finds Ralph to be an intriguing subject.

You can't blame Agnetha for being drawn-in.

Matthew James’s performance as Ralph is the most striking element of the production. The lights cast a charming gleam in his blue eyes early in Act I as he coaxes a little girl into his van with a distinctly pre-meditated intention of assaulting and killing her. Through James's performance, we see simultaneously that Ralph is human, putting on hand lotion and complaining about his landlady, and that he is horrible, planning and carrying out tortuous acts on young children with no remorse. Or perhaps it is just that he does horrible things. But how to separate these concepts? And why?

This question was first put to me in an undergraduate seminar on Holocaust literature. “To say that Hitler was an animal lets us all off the hook and preserves our sense of humanity,” went the professor’s argument. If we can put Hitler in the “monster” category, we are free to go about living our own lives untroubled by the depths of his depravity—for we have nothing in common with him.

To admit that Hitler was human, on the other hand, indicts us all for the acts he committed; it indicts our very concept of humanity. This admission must make us all look into our own eyes and see not just the capacity for the sublime or the banal, but the capacity for hate, violence, and perversion.

How to deal with “the monsters” in our society? What do we make of them intellectually? How do we respond to them emotionally? Even physically? Where do we put our “monsters”? Do we lock them up? Torture them for information? Kill them? Forgive them?

These are essential questions at any time in history, but seem to have particular resonance in the epoch of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and the anti-American villain du jour.

It would be gratifying (and even miraculous) to leave the theatre with answers to these questions. My experience, instead, was to depart with a string of unconnected thoughts groping for connections across the synapses of my brain.

In some sense, watching this play was like seeing a woman with a butterfly net poised to catch the secret of the universe capture only an empty chrysalis. I'm game for disappointment in life - and even in art.

But I couldn't resist feeling that some truth escaped the threads of Lavery's net because she wasn't able to balance the gravity of Ralph's and Nancy's stories with Agnetha's comparatively trivial dilemma.

This issue in the script threw the production off balance for me. There was one moment in particular when Agnetha's neurotic fit eclipsed my ability to make sense of the theories she was offering regarding Ralph's capacity for remorse and insight. Maybe this was the intention, but it was a moment that pulled me out of the spell of the play.

There were very few other moments like this—the most unfortunate of which had to do with poor Mister James's perpetually peeling, shiny mustache. To see such a remarkable performance dogged with such an absurd issue was like watching a bald eagle soar head-on into a pole.

Still, if the biggest hitch in a complex and challenging play like Frozen is an uncooperative piece of synthetic facial hair, I would call the production a success.

A unity of vision and directorial insight was apparent throughout, from the ethereal pre-show music, to the tow-headed young stage hands, clad in gossamer white, simultaneously running props and serving as visual voids, sad placeholders for the children taken from their existence by the “monster” of the show.

Go see Frozen. At the least you will witness riveting and skillful performances and arresting theatrical moments such as when Nancy confronts Ralph as her daughter's murderer. At best, you will leave with new questions about forgiveness, guilt, and responsibility. And if you find any answers, please let me know.

--Vicki Krajewski

Vicki Krajewski has acted and directed with theatre companies in Chicago and Iowa including the Prairie Center for the Arts, Sandcastle Productions, Dreamwell, Catalyst, Iowa City Community Theatre and City Circle. Several of her short plays and monologues have been produced in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. Along with her performance pieces, she does occasional newspaper reporting, freelance feature writing, technical writing, personal essays and even some poetry.

(The above photo was taken by Wayne Carlson. Pictured are Matthew James and Deborah Gideon.)

Another Review of Frozen

City Circle – If you want your theater experience to be more than a few songs and some snazzy costumes… If you want a play that makes you think… If you want performances that are heart wrenching… you must see City Circle’s production of Frozen by Bryony Lavery.

When the audience first enters the Northwest Junior High School theater, they are confronted with a space that embodies the name of the show. The four-level stage was bare except for wooden cubes painted to look like blocks of ice. There is a static nature to the space that suits the beginning of the play well as it tells the story of three individuals frozen in place: the mother whose daughter was murdered, the killer who has no remorse, and the neuropsychiatrist who has studied serial killers but never confronted one. Music played as we waited for the show to begin and while I didn't recognize the song, I did catch the words "fire burning", which prepared me for what was to come.

There's a strong sense of direction in this show as every movement by the actors is carefully calculated for maximum effect. Each of the three principal actors has a section of the stage to call their own and they retreat there while another character speaks. Director Steven Hunt sends them from their home base to other parts of the stage with deliberate intention. Particularly effective is Hunt's choice to send Ralph, the serial killer, into the space occupied by Nancy, the mother, as he abducts the child. Paula Grady as Nancy sits frozen and horrified while Matthew James as Ralph shows us how he convinced the girl to go with him.

James is revelation as Ralph. What's most horrifying and effective about his performance is that you get the sense that he's a pretty regular guy who just happens to kill people. By showing the audience the humanity of the character, it's impossible for us to write him off as an aberration. We want to understand how he can claim his only regret is that killing young girls isn't legal. James captures every moment of Ralph's journey toward remorse perfectly. His icy eyes always remind us of the killer within. His facial contortions transform a handsome visage into the image of a monster. But it’s James’ ability to create empathy for a killer, particularly in the final scenes of the show, for which he deserves the most praise.

Agnetha, the neuropsychiatrist, attempts to provide the audience with some understanding of why serial killers kill. Deborah Gideon's Agnetha offers us much needed moments of humor, especially in the beginning of the show. Her journey from analysis of a subject to empathy for a human being is enjoyable to watch. The only part of the script that seems a little shoved in is Agnetha's personal life. There's a use for it at the end of the play, but that payoff isn't really enough to justify the distraction. Nevertheless, Gideon does an excellent job with what she has to work with.

Grady does her best work toward the end of play when Nancy confronts Ralph. It's difficult to describe without giving away the ending, but suffice it to say Grady's choice to be more understated than emotional at the end, more frozen than on fire, works well.

There were many little touches that added to the production, like the use of music to emphasize the emotion of a scene and casting two angelic children as stagehands clad in white to remind us of the innocence destroyed by the killer. The lighting was also extremely well done as it followed the characters from one section of the stage to the next adding movement to what could have been a very static piece in the hands of a less skilled director.

Hunt and his cast and crew deserve praise for bringing to stage such a challenging and visceral show. This is theater at its best: entertaining, emotional, and thought provoking.

--Matthew Falduto

Matthew has a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Iowa. He has directed, acted in, and produced theater in the Iowa City area for over ten years. He was worked with the Iowa City Community Theatre, City Circle and Dreamwell, of which he a founder. Two of his plays have been produced in the Iowa City area. In another brief life, he also worked as a technical writer.

(The above photo was taken by Wayne Carlson. Pictured left to right are Paula Grady, Deborah Gideon, Matthew James, and Stephen Polchert (Guard).)

Frozen

City Circle - "Come with an open mind."

That was Matthew Smith's response when I asked him what audiences should know about City Circle's newest production, Frozen by Bryony Lavery. It's not that Smith expects Iowa City area audiences to have closed minds, but he recognizes that the subject matter of this play is not always easy to take.

The play explores the idea of forgiveness for unforgivable acts by examining the story of a mother whose child was abused and murdered, the psychologist who posits that forgiveness is possible, and the killer who expects no forgiveness for his actions. Lavery expertly weaves these three characters's stories through monologues and scenes into a tapestry that is sure to leave audiences mulling over that central question - are these acts worthy of forgiveness?

Smith, who plays the killer Ralph, has an understandably hard time finally admitting that, yes, he does believe his character is entitled to forgiveness. "It's a discussion of grace. Everyone is entitled to forgiveness. But it doesn't excuse his crime. Doesn't make him less brutal or evil." Actors need to empathize with their character to play him, so it only speaks to Smith's commitment that he can reach that conclusion.

When trying to understand the character of Ralph, this production had a secret weapon. The character of Agnetha, the neuropsychiatrist who studies Ralph, is portrayed by Deborah Gideon, a neuropsychologist in real life. The main difference between the two professions, says Gideon, is that neuropsychiatrists are trained to be physicians. Otherwise, both professions study the brain and how behavior is produced.

Director Steven Hunt took full advantage of Gideon's expertise during the first two weeks of rehearsal which involved simply reading and discussing the play. "Matt did research, Paula (Grady, who plays Nancy, the mother of the victim) explored inwardly the issues of her character, and of course Deborah brought in a lot of information," says Hunt. Grady concurs, saying "[Deborah] brought some great insights about the effects of abuse, emotional and physical, on the brain."

Gideon cites a study done of Romanian orphans who were raised in an orphanage where only their most basic needs were addressed. The children were rarely picked up and had very little human interaction. Consequently, MRIs of these children's brains showed a significant lack of development. This evidence of a physical effect from a psychological attack is the heart of Ralph's case as this fictional murderer suffered child abuse which affected the development of his brain.

Gideon says the play talks about "crimes of evil versus crimes of illness and if it's a symptom, not sin, then should we reconsider the difference between right and wrong?" Smith suggests that the stereotype of the killer is a "mean, crazy, just evil" person, but "the beauty of the play is that it shows all of that and the humanity of him too."

Each of these actors is experienced in bringing complex roles to the stage. Gideon did many shows in South Carolina before coming to Iowa and participating in City Circle's New Play Festival and the Mount Vernon/Lisbon Community Theatre's New Play Festival earlier this year. Smith most recently performed in Theatre Cedar Rapids' production of Angels in America as well as The Music Man and Seussical the Musical with City Circle. Grady has worked with City Circle, Dreamwell, ICCT, and Riverside as well as her own theater company, Moongarden. Hunt has directed for theatres across the country including Creede Repertory Theatre (Colorado), Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre (North Carolina), The Egyptian Theatre (Utah), Vacant Lot Players (Colorado) and the Hilton Head Playhouse (South Carolina).

Hunt points out that each character has a journey to take in the play. Gideon's character Agnetha moves from analytical to emotional as she confronts for the first time what's she only studied in books. Smith's character journeys toward remorse for his crimes and Grady's character has perhaps the most difficult journey toward forgiveness. Where each character ends his or her journey may send audiences on a journey of their own as they consider the questions raised by this thought-provoking play.

The play will be performed at Northwest Junior High September Sept. 28-29 and Oct. 5-6 at 8 p.m., and Sept. 30 and Oct. 7 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $14 for students and seniors and $17 for adults and are available at J. Frahm Music and the Coralville Recreation Center or by calling 319-248-1750. For more information visit City Circle Acting Company's website.

--Matthew Falduto

[In the above picture, cast members rehearse a scene from Frozen. Left to right: Deborah Gideon (Agnetha), Stephen Polchert (Guard), and Matthew Smith (Ralph). ]