Grim and morbid suits me fine these days. And the David Lear-helmed Bad Seed, running through Oct. 26 on the Monroe Stage at 6th Street Playhouse, provides that in spades.
With a refreshingly pulpy script by Maxwell Anderson, which inspired the 1956 cult film of the same name, Bad Seed gives its cast the opportunity to explore the darkness of humanity.
A study in gorgeous scenic and costume design (Bruce Lackovic, Mae Heagerty-Matos), the show features the best work that this reviewer has seen from Sandra Ish as the increasingly stressed out Christine Penmark, whose daughter, Rhoda (an eerie Sylvia Whitbrook, who has the smooth, almost clinical physicality of a predator), is the titular antagonist.
Ish’s performance is nothing short of astonishing, as she goes from doting mother to a woman terrified by her child. Her scenes with a wonderfully soft and noble Mike Pavone (as Christine’s father, Richard) anchor the show in the right amount of family turmoil that really makes one feel the pain of the tragedy that befalls them.
Coupled with the banal evil that Whitbrook wholeheartedly commits herself to, and one has got an ending that makes them want to shake their fists at the sky and scream, “Noooooo” in the best possible way.
These are performances that are lovingly crafted, from Mary Gannon Graham as the brassy and Freud-obsessed Monica Breedlove, to an at once hilarious and pitiful Kimberly Kalember as Mrs. Daigle. Priscilla Locke, as Miss Fern, feels like she was plucked directly from the ’50s. John Craven oozes from scene to scene as suspicious caretaker Leroy. And kudos to Thaddeus Louviere as Kenneth Penmark, who has the challenge of bookending the show by reacting truthfully to events he never personally witnesses.
Though the script does sag in the middle, and the blocking feels cluttered at times, the gripping unraveling of Ish’s character will keep one’s attention. If one watches Whitbrook in her quiet moments, they’ll be rewarded with some nuanced choices from this promising young actor. As the sense of foreboding increases with each scene transition (often courtesy of sound by Laurynn Malilay), the work of all these actors made me grin like an idiot because it seemed like so much fun.
If one is seeking a fiendishly devilish ride for Halloween, this might be the treat.
‘Bad Seed’ runs through Oct. 26 on the Monroe Stage at 6th Street Playhouse, 52 W. 6th Street, Santa Rosa. Thurs–Sat, 7:30pm; Sat & Sun, 2pm. $27–$40. 707.523.4185. 6thstreetplayhouse.com.
