LOOM WITH A VIEW
Ghost Road Theatre’s The Unraveling pulls you into its strange, hypnotic orbit and doesn’t let go. This is a truly original work with some breathtaking theatrical coups. Ann Noble is mesmerizing as Susan, a reclusive former professor who loved teaching Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, but modern-day students and their ever-present phones caused her to have a meltdown. Now—working on a loom like Circe, the powerful sorceress and goddess who turned Odysseus’s crew into swine—she’s holed up in the mountains, nursing old wounds and trying to disappear. But solitude isn’t in the cards—next door to her is Felix (Kelvin Morales), a young, decent and sad gamer, who is falling in love with a fellow gamer, Penelope (the wildly engaging Camila Rozo), who is developing her own game based on stories from The Odyssey.
Ann Noble and Ensemble
I have a soft spot for Devised Theatre, also known as collective creation—it’s a theatrical process where the script and score emerge from collaborative, improvisational work by an ensemble. Thus, you will see the most astounding creativity in all forms. And if you are a fan or just familiar with The Odyssey, you will thrill at all the Easter eggs to be discovered.
Liz Eldridge, Raven Pinkston, Ann Noble, Christine Breihan
Sometimes, the story takes second fiddle to the remarkable goings on (my favorite was video characters come to life), but I found that a small price to pay in this enchanting evening from Ghost Road Artistic Director Katherine Noon, who conceived and directed an ensemble (Ronnie Clark, Sika Lonner and Brian Weir) that shifts between characters and fluid abstract movement. A chorus of women (Christine Breihan, Raven Pinkston and composer Liz Eldridge) sing a plaintive Appalachian/Celtic score that is super moody, even if you can’t understand the lyrics.
Ronnie Clark, Sika Lonner, Camila Rozo
But the real sorcery? Brandon Baruch’s lighting. His design doesn’t just set the mood—it bends time, warps reality, and pulls us deeper into the show’s dreamlike rhythm. One moment, the stage is bathed in the cold, isolating blue of self-imposed loneliness; the next, it’s pulsing with warmth as fractured connections start to mend. Shadows stretch and collapse like memories fighting to be forgotten, and sudden bursts of light crack the darkness like revelations. It’s breathtaking work in a production that already thrives on the uncanny, a perfect match for Ghost Road’s signature blend of the poetic and the visceral.
Kevin Morales and Ann Noble
photos courtesy of Ghost Road
The Unraveling
Ghost Road Company
The Broadwater Mainstage, 1078 Lillian Way in Hollywood
95 minutes, no intermission
ends on March 30, 2025
Mon and Thurs-Sat at 8; Sun at 3
for tickets, visit Ghost Road
for more shows, visit Theatre in LA
