As one might predict, Enid relents, succumbing to the peculiar charm of this peculiar visitor and informs her husband-to-be that there has been an abrupt and dramatic change of plans. This is as far as a summary of the intriguing play can go without spoiling the more riveting and shocking elements of the play. Far more dire and spellbinding than the run-of-the-mill story that could get categorized as “tales of a woman’s capriciousness,” South Park’s adaptation of Christie’s piece is not only a devoted and meticulous retelling of the source material, but possesses the spirit and ambience that is necessary for a Christie saga to unfurl successfully. So much of what is important in a play like The Stranger is suspense that is drawn from the quaint and, often, incongruous setting, and the plausibility and commitment of the actors to the quirky, particular roles they inhabit. Jill Black, Jeanie Cygrymus and Terra Skirtich (Set Designer, Prop Designer, and Costume Designer, respectively) deserve inordinate praise for the fastidiously crafted and presented world of The Stranger, which not only beautifully captures the essence of a Christie physical and imagined milieu—in such a way that not only would an acolyte of Christie be tickled, but an unfamiliar audience member would feel wonderfully wrapped up in the world—but is a world where each visual part is delightful to gaze upon.
The performances in The Stranger are crisp and exact to the point of almost giving way to the artifice of it all, but the actors end up straddling that line very exactly and enjoyably. As Enid, Elizabeth Glyptis is both the right amount spirited and longingly defiant and the right amount tragically trusting to make the female lead a devastatingly relatable woman to watch. Her male counterparts, Michael Barnett (Dick) and Adam Wainwright (Gerald) are affable and precise enough to give their odd triad a compelling feel that compels the audience to keep watching with rapt attention.
South Park’s The Stranger is a palatably peculiar examination of the intrigue and unpredictability of human behavior that gives the audience more than they expect and yearning for more, moment after scintillating moment.
The Stranger runs at South Park Theatre til October 20. For tickets and more information click here.
Eva Phillips is celebrating her third year in Pittsburgh, third year writing for PGH in the Round, and twenty-seventh year not getting murdered (shockingly, despite all odds). She relocated to the brittle Steel City from Virginia to pursue her Masters in Literary and Cultural Studies at CMU (with a concentration in film theory and film criticism, and intersections with feminism and gender), and has spent the past few years in Pittsburgh cultivating her writing career, developing her blog https://www.tuesgayswithmorrie69.net/, raising two show cats, and widening her perspectives on the ever-evolving spectrum of theatre. She only has one Les Miserables tattoo out of her 32 tattoos, and she finds that morally reprehensible.
Categories: Archived Reviews