May 29--In an empty room with white walls and just a single wooden deck chair, a man assesses the environment: "Hotter," he says of the room's temperature. "I want her to melt."
This is where a young woman, claiming to be a survivor of the Titanic, will be housed and interrogated. Because surely what she claims is impossible. What, she simply didn't age in all these years since the ship sank? She just magically subsisted on an iceberg until her recent discovery? What is going on here?
If she is not an impostor (played enigmatically and charmingly by Skyler Schrempp), what is she? Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher is evasive on the matter, so much so that you wonder if this is all just a figment of the man's imagination -- a man, as it happens, who claims to be a descendant of John Jacob Astor, the richest of the Titanic's fatalities.
The play, directed by Charles Riffenburg for BoHo Theatre, doesn't quite kick into gear until about 25 minutes in, when the woman finally speaks and challenges this twisted little pisher (Jesse Dornan), and it is their back-and-forth that fuels the drama. That and Hatcher's casual way with menacing comic asides, revealing the ugliness within.
REVIEW: "Scotland Road" by BoHo Theatre
2.5 STARS
Through June 14 at the Heartland Studio, 7016 N. Glenwood Ave.; tickets $20 at 866-811-4111 or bohotheatre.com.
nmetz@tribpub.com
