Arts & Entertainment

In MTC's 'Bellwether,' a Child Disappears and Weirdness Ensues

Latest Marin Theatre Company production, which runs through Oct. 30, features humor, potent acting and a chilling sound design.

On the face of it, , which opened this week at the in Mill Valley, is an ordinary story about trouble in the suburbs. There is the usual gossiping over afternoon cocktails and smug proclamations about perfection in the gated community of Bellwether, where "nothing bad ever happens.''

Jackie Draft (Arwen Anderson) is the mildly discontented wife of Alan Draft (Gabriel Marin), who works hard and comes home late. Jackie drinks with a divorced neighbor Maddy (Rachel Harker), rarely looks in on her 6-year-old daughter Amy, and longs for the unnamed city that they left for Bellwether.

This cagy play goes on the dark side when Amy is abducted from her upstairs bedroom. The once-welcoming neighbors turn on the Drafts, a trio of female newscasters spy and pry, and two policemen (Danny Wolohan and Patrick Jones) show the sinister side of crime investigation as they mock the bereaved parents.

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Dark gets darker as playwright Steve Yockey works a twist on the Persephone myth. Jackie is sucked up and spirited to the underworld, where her daughter is imprisoned, instructed by a spooky doll (Katherine Zdan). Amy (Jessica Lynn Carroll) wants to remain where she is, but Jackie has a choice: Should she bring about the release of Amy or ask for freedom for the several other abducted Bellwether children?

She chooses family over community, and we return to the bleak postmodern house in the suburbs, where there will be no happy seasons to come. Anderson and Jessica Lynn Carroll (Amy) turn in the most potent acting of the evening in this netherworld scene.

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Director Ryan Rilette makes the most of these rather pale characters, adding small dollops of humor. The neighbors act in pompous chorus, the lady newscasters (vivaciously played by Mollie Stickney, Marissa Keltie and Liz Sklar) deliver their blurbs with shrill self-importance, and the automated doll (her wonderful getup by Fumiko Bielefeldt) reiterates her lines as if programmed by an extraterrestrial computer. Chris Houston's sound design is chilling.

These are the premiere performances of "Bellwether,'' and while the play is not the strongest of Yockey's works, the production is imaginatively staged and well-acted, and there are magic tricks galore.

"Bellwether'' plays through Oct. 30. are $34.

Bay City News Service


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