RSC’s Witchland is Scary and Well-Acted, but a Bit Jumbled

by Stan Jenson

 Revolution Stage Company (RSC), the Valley’s newest theatre company, continues to break barriers.  Their latest production, Witchland by Tim Mulligan, is a very spooky story told with equal amounts of shivers and laughs. The plot is driven by a gay couple; Jarod (Jason Reale) and Van (Brent Anderson) whose Black adopted daughter, Ali (delightful newcomer Tiffany Johnson), is going into her senior year of high school.

At the top of the play, we meet the family living in a cramped Seattle apartment.  Jarod comes home and announces that he has been offered a job in Richland at a nuclear plant with a long history of causing diseases and death among its workers, through poor operation practices.  Van and Ali object, but soon give in and we next see the family in their new home – a spacious house, from which they can see a river through one window and a very creepy house next-door through another one.

I’ll take a little detour here to talk about the inventive staging by director Richard S. Blake.  The Revolution’s stage has vertical beams that form the proscenium. The area defined by the proscenium (the traditional stage area) is their new home.  Stage left of the new home is an exterior setting where the mysterious house is permanently set.  The apartment scene in Seattle is a little breakfast nook to the left of the audience.  A key later scene is played to the right of the audience.  There is also a cross-over area in front of the house curtain. At the top of the show, actors are actually seated in the audience to interact with some stage action.  In short, the action is both in front of you and all around you which adds to the creep factor when it arises.  We are no longer smugly safe just because we are in the audience!

In a short opening scene, a high school couple (Christopher Lopez and Sarah Woolsey) cross the stage on a very dimly lit evening.  They see the creepy house and remind each other that everyone in town thinks it is inhabited by a witch.  The witch leaves a little pyramid of sticks in front of her house. It is known – perhaps a local urban legend – that anyone who removes a stick will be in serious mystical trouble, and the pile of sticks will be back to full by the next day.  The boy successfully dares the girl to take a stick and the repercussions are revealed later in the show.

After a few weeks at the nuclear facility, Jarod comes home sick.  That evening, he and Van have an argument based on Van’s belief that the neighbor is a witch.  Jared storms out of the house, grabs the whole bundle of sticks, and disposes of them.  Jarod’s declining health situations that follow could possibly be caused by where Jarod works, or much more likely, by the witch next door.  Through all of this, there are many genuinely humerous moments as the couple and their daughter settle in to the new residence.  Both of the dads are funny and likeable, with Anderson earning more than his fair share of the chuckles.  Their daughter Ali is delightful – a wise high school senior who frequently is the provider of common sense in the family.

The feeling of unseen horror combined with a few scary things happening onstage, had me withdrawing into a little ball.  A couple of loud onstage noises actually caused the audience to gasp.  One lady a couple of rows ahead of me screamed when a creepy character softly touched her shoulder (I warned you that it’s interactive).

Knowing that this was the second-ever production of this script, I found myself really reflecting on the structure.  I kept feeling that it was a collection of truly wonderful moments that didn’t always congeal into a cohesive story line.  At one point, a married couple with white tights over their faces brought a little girl (their daughter?) onto the stage, forced her to lie on a table, then more people wearing black robes came in and surrounded the girl on the table.  Then that scene was over.  I discussed with a few audience members what they thought that scene was about and the closest we could get was that it had something to do with how the witch was created, perhaps in an earlier period.

 Now about the witch.  She was played by Katrina Dixon, certainly a very well-established and respected actress in the Valley, but she wore a very traditional black witch dress and always had her head covered by a black hood.  When we heard her speak, it was generally incantations or shrieks.  She was the villain and antagonist, but was primarily talked about rather than establishing herself as a multidimensional character.  Dixon certainly brought her skills and energy to what she was given, but the character could use more dimension or backstory, and probably would have benefited by some actual displays of horrible powers on her own, before she (perhaps) puts a spell on Jarod.

Another area that could be improved upon was long breaks between scenes, evidently for actors to change costumes.  During most of these, the house curtain is dropped.  If little scenes could be added in front of the curtain, the energy of the show wouldn’t drop.  For instance, maybe we could see what happened to the high school couple rather than have them talk about it in Act 2, or maybe the witch could commit some horrific act showing that she is truly a bad character.

Another confusing plot line is the whole nuclear plant.  The show actually starts with a plant worker (Isaac Gaeta-Tollette) addressing the audience trying to explain what we will see when we enter the facility, but we never do enter it.  At the end of Act 1, four or five characters in hazmat suits gather in front of the curtain but with masks on their faces over their radio mics, it was difficult to understand what they were saying, and I couldn’t discern any reason for them being there.  In short, the whole concept of touring the nuclear facility is never realized, and all of the hazmat business could be replaced by one sleazy plant manager with a “keep the plant open at all costs” attitude (one villain vs. another villain.)

The play is definitely worth seeing, if for no other reason than just to enjoy the two-dads-and-a-daughter family.  I would sign up for a weekly TV program with the three of them negotiating life, and all three actors are superb.  I also have a hunch that the lengthy stops while costume changes are made will be trimmed down from what they were on opening night.  Top marks go to Revolution for nurturing new works, but following their amazing production of Avenue Q would have been a difficult challenge for any show.

Witchland continues through March 2nd.  One of the delights of Revolution Stage Company is the number and variety of productions they host every week.  It is necessary to go to their website at www.TheRevolutionStage.com and look at the calendar to find out exactly when the production you are looking for will be presented.  And while you are at the calendar, you will see upcoming productions such as The Woman in the Mirror on March 10-31, Truman Talks Tennessee on February 13, and Billie: Backstage with Lady Day on April 12-21.  And if you haven’t caught Mid-Century Moderns yet, it plays every weekend and is a must-see! Tickets can be purchased at their website or box office. The theater is located at  611 S. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs, in the same shopping center as the Palm Springs Revivals store.