BWW Reviews: CROOKED at Theater Schmeater

Theater Schmeater kicks off their 2011 season with the West Coast Premiere of "Crooked" by Catherine Trieschmann, a show filled with teen angst, sexual awakenings, revealed secrets and invisible stigmata.  With some powerhouse performances the show is a fresh look at the trials of the American teenager, I only wish it had a more definite ending.

In the story, Laney (played by Mariah Caine Ware), a High School student with a slight physical deformity and a creative and inquisitive brain, lives with her newly single Mother, Elise (Jena Cane), who's just trying to raise her daughter in a rational and thoughtful way while figuring out what to do with her new life as they have moved back to Mississippi.  Meanwhile the ostracized Laney has made one new friend in the bible thumping Maribel (Zoey Cane Belyea), a girl who seems certain in what she wants but is completely lost in her own way.  As their friendship grows so do their conflicts as Elise doesn't approve with Laney's new found conversion to Maribel's beliefs.  But is Maribel converting Laney or the other way around?

The play, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival back in 2004, has some wonderful moments although at times gets a little repetitive and contrived and the ending just kind of happens.  It suffers from a misplacement of structure as it seems to have a beginning, a middle, another middle and then a big dramatic moment that ends the show without really resolving any of the story arcs for the characters.  It left me with a big, "And?" at the end.

The performances for the most part are solid.  Belyea is engaging as the evangelical Maribel.  Her naïve and slightly addled conviction to her spoon fed religion is wonderful, however there were a few moments were I felt her focus and intention slip into just getting the lines out.  Cane as the newly single cool Mom makes her intentions quite clear with a powerful yet slightly static performance.  And Ware turns in an amazingly thoughtful and multi layered performance as the physically and emotionally damaged teen trying to hold it all together.  Ware had several hauntingly subtle, yet highly emotional moments that almost had me in tears with her.

Well staged not in the round but in the square (despite what "The Producers" Max Bialystock thinks, you can get a good seat) by director Russ Banham with a killer set by Brendan Mack (loved that painted floor), the show is an excellent effort not without its problems.  But if you'd like a fresh new voice for the American teen and the "reality" of episodes of "Gossip Girl" have left you wanting then this may be just the choice for you.

"Crooked" plays at Theater Schmeater through February 12^th.  For tickets or information contact the Theater Schmeater box office at 206-324-5801 or visit them online at www.schmeater.org.

Photo Credit: Dave Hastings