Review: People Will Talk About You Sometimes by Poison Apple Initiative
by Michael Meigs
"And then they'll be sorry. . . ."
That's a typical mind game of adolescents hurting from bruised egos and sunk in self pity. It's a no-win game in which they're always victorious. No boundaries; no opposition; and the only players are imaginary others who regret every slight or offense they've ever caused you.
Sarah Matusek's script takes the concept seriously. She removes the protagonist entirely and explores the consternation of four persons who knew Izzy before it happened. You know -- what she did. And the consequences. That we really, really don't want to talk about, except that we must.
Director Lindsey Sikes stands in the center of the hodgepodge circle of chairs, sofas and cushions occupying the playing space at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre. She doesn't speak to us as we filter into the theatre, but she beckons, indicating that we should occupy these places. Some have a tidy 'reserved' label, but there are still about fifteen available. On opening night we became the circle around the circle around the absent Izzy. Sheets of paper had been cast across the floor; Sikes silently picked them up at random and handed them to us participants. They were handwritten letters, musing and moody. It wasn't immediately clear who had written them or who received them. She offered us another sheet. Eventually from of this quiet dislocation the action begins.
Matusek gives us an inner circle of four, her characters like points of the compass. It'll take a while to sort them out, for they're off balance themselves, stunned by What Happened. A cheat sheet for you: Nick, who was closest to Izzy, her boyfriend and confidant; Audre, a college teacher; Izzy's brother Killian; and Eliza, who knew her, sort of, at work. As they work through their shock, with Matusek's vivid images and imaginings and the cast's vigorous interaction between characters and with the audience, bonds are established, the story becomes clearer, and the emotions range from downcast to angry to suspense-ridden to exuberant.
Director Sikes circulates unobtrusively around and through this creation. Often when she speaks, she seems to be delivering the playwright's stage directions. For example, "As the professor speaks with an open mouth all that is heard is the exciting part of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue." This is acceptable, economical stagecraft; it would have been more effective if Sikes had spoken louder. She eventually steps into a character, Maev the kindly nurse. And eventually Izzy (Meredith McCarty) reveals herself again to her concerned, relieved, apprehensive group of friends.
Poison Apple Initiative credits the cast and others as the development team for this script. The story's decisive blocking and movement are evidence that they applied their ingenuity to it. Sikes recruited actors capable of crisp, vivid characterization: Suzanne Balling as the earnest and well-meaning college instructor; Jon Cook as the loud but clueless brother, a type he does entirely too effectively for his own good; Cassadie Petersen as co-worker Eliza, ever quivering between confession and panic; and Zac Carr as the worried and protective boyfriend Nick.
On the program, though not in the publicity, People Will Talk About You Sometimes carries the subtitle 'A Love Letter.'
People Will Talk About You Sometimes
by Sarah Matusek
Poison Apple Initiative
People Will Talk About You Sometimes is staged four times for FronteraFest (January 20 and 24, February 1 and 2 -- tickets here) and four more times, February 5 - 8, at the Rude Mechs' Offshoot rehearsal studio, 2211-A Hidalgo Street (tickets here).
