FOREST ENTRY
After her car breaks down during a storm, Josie (a sympathetic Rachael Hip-Flores), a young woman searching for her father years after he mysteriously vanished, happens upon a creepy old house in Kristen Palmer’s Once Upon A Bride There Was A Forest. In order to gain admittance to the dwelling, so that she may use their phone to call for assistance, Josie pretends to be the nanny the homeowners are expecting. But once inside time gets away from her and she becomes imprisoned in her servant’s role as she realizes that the secret behind her father’s disappearance lies in the house.
A modern fairy story set in a mysterious and ominous world with its own unique logic, this cautionary tale about the dangers of losing your future while searching for what was lost in the past makes for compelling viewing, with entertaining characters and meaningful themes. Kristen Vaughan is terrific as the domineering, greedy and sinister matron Eugenia, with Arthur Aulisi doing a convincing job as her confused and detached husband Everett. The energetic Becky Byers is a joy as their stupid spoiled daughter Belle. And Brian Silliman’s deadpan delivery in his two roles as butler and soda jerk is hilarious. Chinaza Uche does not appear to have sufficient understanding of his role as Warren, Josie’s fiancé, who goes out searching of her but then finds himself enchanted by Belle; Mr. Uche effectively undermines the scenes he is in and the performances of actors who play against him.
Overall, Heather Cohn does a solid job of helming Ms. Palmer’s invention, though she does overdo it in the climactic scene of the first act, which is so dramatic and horrifying in itself that it begs for realistic, as opposed to stylized, direction. Ms. Cohn makes good use of Will Lowry’s textured set; constructed from unfinished wood and boasting three delicate bird cages hanging from the ceiling as well as a scary-looking doll’s house off in the corner, it’s consistent with the story’s allegorical quality. And Janie Bullard’s sounds of storms, traffic and a crying baby add fullness to the world on the stage.
Ms. Palmer makes two missteps with the script. The first is when Josie, faced with an insurmountable obstacle, overcomes it through sheer force of will, without doing anything special—a no-no with fairytales, whose truth lies in metaphor. Fortunately, Ms. Cohn’s and Ms. Hip-Flores’s excellent handling of the scene makes the problem virtually unnoticeable. The second issue is that for the big revelation at the end the play, which up until then is an enigmatic allegory, suddenly becomes straightforward and literal. Besides being dull and unnecessary, this choice is thematically wrong and should be dispensed with. Though unfortunate, these two glitches take little away from the overall experience.
photos by Isaiah Tanenbaum
Once Upon a Bride There Was a Forest
Flux Theatre Ensemble
4th Street Theatre, 83 East 4th St
scheduled to end on December 20, 2014
for tickets, visit www.fluxtheatre.org