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Creepy play worth the 2 hours

By BARBARA FREDRICKSEN, Arts and Entertainment
Published February 3, 2008

Jessica Virginia, from left, W. Paul Wade, Jeanine Martin and Leslie Richards rehearse recently for Veronica's Room. An older couple, played by Martin and Wade, makes an unusual proposition to the younger woman, who agrees. Go see for yourself what happens next.
	[Mike Carlson]

If you enjoyed the movies The Sixth Sense, Rosemary's Baby,The Stepford Wives and, yes, the old Greek tragedies Oedipus the King and Medea, you will not want to miss Veronica's Room, playing weekends through Feb. 10 at Stage West Community Playhouse.

Veronica's Room has many of the elements in those dramas: lust, fear, control, incest, guilt, death and, most compelling, twists in plot that are completely unexpected but make complete, if warped, sense once you see them. And as with Rosemary, Oedipus and even Medea, you feel a modicum of sympathy with the characters, who are as much victim as they are villain.

That's because of a finely wrought script by the late Ira Levin, who, by the way, also wrote Rosemary and Stepford, brilliant direction by Peter Clapsis and jaw-dropping performances by the four actors: Jeanine Martin as Woman, Jessica Virginia as Girl, Leslie Richards as Young Man, and W. Paul Wade as Man.

Veronica's Room isn't for kids or the squeamish. There's profanity and partial nudity, but both are fleeting and are not the only reasons to limit the audience to the mature. That limitation should also come because immature minds would struggle to follow the disturbing nuances of the plot.

Clapsis and his perfectly-chosen cast are courageous in many ways, foremost in tackling this challenging, dangerous and creepy play. The characters aren't exactly lovable. Girl is admittedly promiscuous, Young Man is strangely withdrawn, and the older couple switch from sincere to threatening in startling, but convincing, flashes.

In it, an elderly Irish couple, who identify themselves as former servants of the wealthy Brabissant family, see an attractive young couple at a restaurant and make them an unusual proposition. They tell Susan, the Girl, that she bears a striking resemblance to the long-dead Brabissant daughter, Veronica, and beg her to come to the Brabissant mansion to impersonate the girl as a comfort to her dying sister, Sissy.

Susan is reluctant; she was looking forward to a night of fun and sex with her new friend, the shy young lawyer Larry. But the old couple is persuasive, and Susan, who fancies herself a free spirit, agrees to assume the role of Veronica for a half hour.

After that, everything turns surreal, as time expands, retracts, merges and collides, and the pieces fall into place.

Telling any more than that would spoil the show.

It must be said, though, that the director and actors not only took chances with their very bodies in this physically violent show, they also took risks with the bane of radio and stage, namely, long, but absolutely essential silences.

In one lengthy scene, Girl is on the stage alone, and her character must take time to think before she speaks. In other scenes, the characters must hesitate before they move or say anything. It takes a great deal of fortitude and will power not to fill those silences, but Clapsis' crew does it with perfect ease and timing (despite a couple of unfortunate, inappropriate sound cues on opening night).

The show comes in at just over two hours, but it's two hours of fascinating, stomach-churning tension.

If you go

Veronica's Room, at The Forum at Stage West Community Playhouse at 2 p.m. today and Feb. 10 and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The theater is at 8390 Forest Oaks Blvd., Spring Hill. Box office is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and an hour before each performance. Call (352) 683-5113.

[Last modified February 2, 2008, 20:10:40]