Threats can't rise to storm

Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 25, 2007 at midnight

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Two skilled actresses give charged performances in Squall, an entertaining but ultimately unmoving play by Elizabeth Hemmerdinger.

Director Billie McBride has long been a champion of the script, and she directs it for Modern Muse Theatre Company with style and fluidity. But she can't overcome the limitations of the script, which thwart its attempts at suspense and emotion.

In a worn Maine cottage on the edge of a cliff, a storm is rising as renowned TV interviewer Diana Bristol is packing up the remains of her mother's life. Into Diana's subdued efficiency blows Cordelia, an excited young woman who says she had an appointment to see the house.

But Cordelia has other intentions, the divining of which takes up much of the first act, as Diana surprisingly doesn't force her out of the house but traps her there for an interrogation, during which bits of information are parceled out, including the fact that Cordelia knew Diana's very difficult, now deceased, mother.

Weapons come into play: a gun, a butcher knife, Seconal. But none of it is very threatening because, well, we're seeing a two-act play. So it's a pretty safe bet up until the final moments that both characters will survive. It's also frustrating, because Cordelia is such an unbalanced, dangerous and obnoxious character it seems Diana might as well just kill her.

The performances give the play the dynamism the script lacks. Martha Harmon Pardee brings strength and solidity to the stage as Diana. She is unquestioningly competent, whether making a firm but casual threat with a pair of kitchen scissors or questioning her visitor.

Karen LaMoureaux counters that stability with the unsettlingly cheery Cordelia, an untethered young woman about to spin out of the Earth's orbit. Together, the two make a dynamic duo, sparring and trading power.

Tina Anderson has designed a grubby cabin that brings real presence to the Arvada's fine new black box theater.

Hemmerdinger has a fine sense of wordplay, with some sharp twists of phrase . In the second act, though, the play turns as dark as the storm and the emotional stakes rise. Somehow, deep past secrets feel contrived, and the play's formula hews uncomfortably close to the skeleton of Marsha Norman's 'Night, Mother. At the moment the audience should feel most tense and torn, Squall doesn't provoke the intense reactions it should.

Squall

• Grade: B

• When and where: 7 p.m. today and Saturday, 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd.

• Cost: $15 to $20

• Information: 720-898-7200

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