Review: DOROTHEA PUENTE TELLS ALL is a Killer Hit at Big Idea Theatre

Sacramento’s very own serial killer, Dorothea Puente, is back to tell her story. Almost thirty-seven years after the first body was dug up on her property, the F St. boarding house killer has shown up at Big Idea Theatre with her view of the events that unfolded, and audiences can’t get enough. In Dorothea Puente Tells All!, Mark Loewenstern imagines what Dorothea might have said about the crimes that shocked Sacramento.

Jackie Martin directs this fascinating exploration into the mind of a narcissist, which stars Janis Stevens in the titular role. So complete is her transformation that it’s hard to tell where Stevens ends and Puente begins. With coiffed white hair and the infamous red coat, Stevens has the various incarnations of Puente down to a science. Grandmotherly philanthropist, seductive barfly, abused child, or serial killer? Stevens is all of those, with some desperate attention-seeking thrown in for good measure. A guest of governors and no stranger to the inside of a cell, Puente was an expert at the art of the con. She took in boarders that were elderly or mentally disabled, those who society was quick to pawn off. Social workers eagerly transferred responsibility to someone willing to take them in…despite red flags. That is, until one finally connected the dots. Selina Bender plays Pat Morris (a pseudonym), the worker who got the ball rolling to begin the investigation into Puente’s missing boarders. They’re joined by a diverse cast of characters: some vouching for Puente’s kindness and some exposing her lies, but all of them fascinating and pivotal to understanding a woman whose many layers had to be peeled away before the public could see what she really was.  

Dorothea Puente Tells All! plays at Big Idea Theatre through November 1st. Tickets may be found online at bigideatheatre.org or by calling the Box Office at (916) 960-3036.

Photo credit: Alyssa Williams-Pierce