“Everyone deserves one song.” Author Molly Rice has provided just that in her work Angelmakers: Songs for Female Serial Killers. Performed as a cabaret-style concert, it features the impressive vocal and instrumental talents of Milia Ayache accompanied by Zorahna on guitar and bass and Murder for Girls Michele Dunlap on drums.
Rice’s songs attempt to explain the rationale behind the eight-featured killer’s behaviors. At the same time they ask the audience, “How is this possible for a human being to do such evil things to others?” . What is the motivation? Is it personal abuse or social inequity that simmered and festered resulting in violence or is it just some strange personality quirk? As we reflect on our world today, these questions are even more relevant given today’s capabilities to inflect serial death in “rapid-fire” succession.
Aftershock Theatre is a new to the current cultural scene performance space. The Venue is located in a historic Slavic social hall in upper Lawrenceville. The property is undergoing major renovation, and it is a good match for this concert play by Real/Time Interventions. Director Rusty Thelin uses the raw space on the main floor as his performance space. Walls are draped in plastic, chairs with white slipcovers and the band in white nurses’ dresses. It’s an appropriate gritty space that is enhanced by the fresh smell of old plaster dust and the hum of a portable propane heater. There is the feeling of a being in a haunted house as you enter the performance space, perhaps the ghosts of the killer’s victims are in the audience as well seeking the explanation for their fate?
Since the social hall is under renovation and possesses the barest of essential accommodations, it creates essentially a pop-up performance space. In spite of the lack of any formal theatrical infrastructure at this point, the tech team has created an intimate venue with an accompanying intimate cabaret sound.
In a typical cabaret performance, there is usually some banter between the performer and the audience. In Rice and Thelin’s collaboration, there is no verbal banter, just pantomime involving objects selected to reflect the killer’s persona, and their photo pulled from a bulletin board. The audience is left to read their backstories in the program. (Hint- do so before the performance begins.) I would have liked the performer to have introduced each song, making a more direct connection to the evil events that the songs attempt to explain. There is a precedent for this within the show as Ayache does introduce the last number as intended for those who have yet to kill.
The band, lead by Ayache as the lead vocalist, is really quite good. Once the break of character leading to the curtain call, it would be fun to listen to them jam for a post-curtain encore, complementing the inclusive nature of the Aftershock Theatre’s mission.
Theatre is a constantly evolving art form, Pittsburgh is fortunate to have companies like Real/Time Interventions and spaces like Aftershock Theatre to push that evolution ahead.
For more, read our Nichole Faina’s insightful preview click here.
Angelmakers: Songs for Female Serial Killers by Real / Time Interventions at Aftershock Theatre, 115 57th St. in Lawrenceville, now through November 11th with performances Tuesdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. On-street parking is available but needs to be looked for, so allow time for this. Price: $20 for a ticket (includes one adult beverage with each ticket). Tickets at www.realtimeinterventions.org
Categories: Archived Reviews