Darkish Comedy at Sunstone Studio

There’s a person duct taped to a recliner. His spouse Nan desires to have just a few phrases with him. Then she’s going to pack the chair with meat and drizzle honey on the driveway, opening up the doorways to let the bears have their method with him. He in all probability deserves it. He’s been abusive. There are folks there to see him endure. Most of them are off stage. It’s OK: this can be a play. Lauren Gunderson’s Exit, Pursued by a Bear straps itself down into shadowy, thought-provoking comedy for one weekend solely this Might.

The person in query is a man named Kyle performed with depth and coronary heart by Jake Konrath. A genuinely charming Nicole McCarty intricately embraces conflicted emotions as the lady who has incarcerated him in a La-Z-Boy. She’s not alone. A few buddies assist Nan re-enact moments from the previous of husband and spouse. Christopher Orth performs to surreal intensifications of deeply involved enthusiasm as Nan’s buddy Simon. Patrice L. Hood is delightfully passionate within the position of a stripper and aspiring actress named Sweetheart who performs various roles within the weird drama that’s staged for Kyle.

Director Stacy Madson locks-in the comedian pressure. The truth that she working with one of many smallest levels within the metropolis helps immeasurably. The weirdly inescapable intimacy of Sunstone Studios amplifies the comedy, the drama and even the unusual, little parts of psychological horror that permeate Gunderson’s script. Madsen finds a coronary heart to the drama that’s coated with comedy. What would possibly come throughout as a little bit of a weird comedian fugue at first look explores deeper considerations of human intimacy and the cruelty individuals are able to. Nan is in search of revenge. What she finds is one thing altogether extra illuminating.

Sunstone Studios’ manufacturing of Exit, Pursued by a Bear continues by way of Might 16 on 127 E. Wells St. For ticket reservations, go to sunstonestudiosmke.com