Excerpted from The Toledo Blade, Toledo, Ohio, Thursday, November 17, 2005
Stage distractions mar Village Players' thriller Theater review
By NANCIANN CHERRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
The relationship between theater people and their audience is a cooperative one. The audience agrees to enter into the play's world, suspending disbelief if necessary, and the troupe does everything in its power to maintain the illusions.
Theaters without curtains have particular problems, because the shuffling of props between scenes is right out in the open. Generally the stage crew is quick and fairly unobtrusive, but such was not the case at a recent production of Murder in Green Meadows at the Village Players.
Not only did the crew take a lot of time to survey the scene and move things, but they were being shadowed by a trainee who didn't do anything except follow and watch, setting off ripples of chuckles throughout the audience.
Perhaps it's petty to be bothered by this, but Murder in Green Meadows is a psychological thriller, and a sense of unease is supposed to be building. A chuckling audience damages, if not destroys, the illusion.
That said, cast members Suzanne Jennens, Maggie Koehler, Ben Lumbrezer, and Jim Trumm are pretty amazing, for they do indeed manage to re-involve the audience in fairly quick order. Trumm and Jennens play Thomas and Joan Devereaux, who move into an upscale housing development in suburban Illinois and are befriended by Jeff and Carolyn Symons, played by Lumbrezer and Koehler.
Murder in Green Meadows takes place over the course of several months in the Devereaux living room, where the friendship grows, then disintegrates. There are secrets and lies amid this idyllic suburban setting, as well as passion, deception, and jealousy that eventually lead to murder.
Written in 1991 by Douglas Post and directed by John Henry and Mare Malley, the play focuses on dialogue and character development; there isn't a whole lot of action, but that makes it all the more intense when it does appear.
Murder in Green Meadows has the same flavor as Deathtrap and Sleuth, although it is neither as literate nor as witty. Most of the plot is gripping, the developments reasonably believable. Often it seems as if we, the audience, are peeking through a window into the lives of these four people.
Where Green Meadows fails to meet the standards of those other plays is in the ending, where the web of suspense unravels, the action seems rushed and forced, and the plot simply runs out of steam.
Despite the problems, Murder in Green Meadows is not time wasted.
For those who can overlook the failings of the author and the fumblings of the stage crew, Jennens,
Koehler, Lumbrezer, and Trumm provide an evening of engrossing entertainment.
"Murder in Green Meadows" runs through Saturday in the Village Players Theatre, 2740 Upton Ave. Tickets are $14 for adults and $12 for seniors and students. Information: 419-472-6817.
Contact Nanciann Cherry at ncherry@theblade.com or 419-724-6130.
Last Modified: 02/25/06