AT BLACK LAKE
“...in the first half of the play, Loher, Tata, and her uniformly impressive cast turn each character inside out with an efficiency that approaches ruthlessness.”
By Dea Loher
Translated by Daniel Brunet
It’s been four years since that night. Else and Johnny reunite with Cleo and Eddie at Black Lake. But when innocent assumptions become scalding questions, and every recollection a wounding taunt that promises a hidden clue, they wrestle with just how little they know about their children. Acclaimed German playwright Dea Loher weaves an eerie tale of uncertainty and distortion through small gestures of everyday life, the cost of relationships and the variability of memory.
With:
Heather Benton
Chris J. Cancel-Pomales
Darrell Stokes
April Sweeney
Director: Ashley Tata
Environment and Lighting Design: Krista Smith
Sound: Cory Larson
Assistant Director: Hunter Gause
Presented at the Tank co-produced by Necessary Digression
July 2019
“The lake, then, is never far from the characters’ minds, and thanks to Krista Smith’s excellent set (she also did the lights), it’s never far from the audience’s mind, either. Smith covers the entire stage with a reflective, cellophane-like material, which, because of the black theater and the single dangling fluorescent bulb, makes the stage seem like a lake viewed at night. As the characters pass across the stage, their reflections pass by beneath them.
This is a fitting choice for a play that revolves around the characters dredging up their histories, both personal and shared. In the hands of a less skilled director, this sort of show could easily lapse into a lethargic drudgery. Luckily, Tata is no such director, and she creates a tense, solemn, and focused world... Tata’s staging features a purposeful stillness, functionally devoid of the stage business that clutters many realist productions. This minimalism should not be mistaken for a poverty of imagination—here is a world where movement, when it occurs, reveals.”