Dark Matters

Blame it on UFOs
Steven King meets Outer Limits

Michael Cleary (Reed Birney) frantically paces the living room in his rural home. The Sheriff (Michael Cullen) soon arrives and we learn that Michael's wife, Bridget (Elizabeth Marvel), has gone missing. Through some standard questioning, we learn the family recently moved to this small town from Washington, D.C. so they both can write. This isn't the first time Bridget has gone missing. Soon Michael's son, Jeremy (Justin Chatwin), comes home, a little high and rather confused about why the Sheriff is there. Father and son go through the standard paces of searching for Bridget but we learn they've been hiding information from the Sheriff. It seems Bridget would sometimes go off on her own for her research on UFOs. We also find out from the Sheriff's work that Bridget also had secrets she kept from her family. At the end of Act I Bridget unexpectedly reappears. Where did she go? What happens from here in a family full of secrets, doubt, and unbelievable events? Your imagination has to let go of some boundaries if you want to enjoy the ending to this puzzle.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa explores themes of trust, control, and conditional love in this strange but interesting take on the American Family. He also takes on our comfort levels with family drama by adding elements of the mysterious and unexplainable phenomena that keeps us just a little bit in the uncomfortable zone. Elizabeth Marvel proves sufficiently unsettling and always a bit out of breath in her role as the top-spinning mother. I'm so glad they cast a seasoned and age-appropriate woman for this who can really use her whole form to express the unbalanced nerves of the character. Justin Chatwin is nice to look at but the teen angst doesn't really seep out into the play. The standout performances are with Reed Birney and Michael Cullen. While both adult male characters are written rather similarly, Birney gives a more wiry performance, adding a desperation to the father role that matches his doubts and frustrations. Cullen plays to Sheriff as strong, smart, but also a bit fallible and uncertain. There is just a hint in Cullen's portrayal that perhaps he might be hiding something, too. But the meaty role is all Birney's as we watch him go to a rather maddening place inside his head. The greatest part of this drama is that it is in the small, intimate space of Rattlestick Theater in the West Village. This stage allows the audience to get close to the family physically and enjoy the strange feel of the mystery in the play. When Shining City was stage in the Manhattan Theater Club, it lost this intimacy thus it lost the ability to do anything but AH-HA the audience with a big scary visual surprise at the end. I prefer a fun, creepy story in a small, dark theater tucked away in the brownstone streets of downtown New York.

SIDE NOTE: I think this is the third theater I've been to where the bathroom is behind the stage. You have to cross the set to find relief during intermission but you get to be part of the decor for a brief moment.

Two Boots Pizza
@ 7th Avenue, Greenwich Avenue and West 11th Street
The cornmeal pizza crust is interesting but the toppings were rather flavorless. Where is the spice, or at least the salt? With crazy pie names like Mr. Pink and Larry Tate, I would think this creativity would translate to some tasty combinations of flavor but this trip resulted in just a stomach filler.