It is like stepping onto the set of a Tim Burton stage play except it’s not.
Mary Zimmerman’s play, The Secret in the Wings directed by Notre Dame’s Film, Television, and Theatre’s Professional Specialist, Siiri Scott immediately captivates the audience the minute they walk into the Philbin Studio Theatre. Actors are oddly placed about the 360-degree dark yet whimsical stage which extends vertically into a black abyss.
Audience members may be a bit unsettled with the eerie expressionless movements of actors staring at them. Meanwhile, one actress is perched on the vertical part of the stage embracing a Raggedy Ann doll with a vexing grin. Keep in mind, the play has not begun yet.
With this pre-performance, Scott prepares the audience for a medley of seven grim fairytales, Left in the Forest, The Three Blind Queens, Stolen Pennies, The Princess Who Wouldn’t Laugh, The Three Snake Leaves, Allerleira, and The Seven Swans. Complete with haunting hymns, dancing, whispers, chants, and live sound effects, The Secret in the Wings offers a more entertaining way to tell frightening stories about how brute the human condition can be.
The acting talents of the cast is delightfully convincing as they, without a moment’s notice, change characters as the swift interchangeable storylines challenges the audience to keep up with the pace of each story.
The Secret in the Wings grim fairytale stories are equivalent to children gleefully making mud pies on the curb in a dreary overcast day: It’s intriguing, entertaining, there is even an innocence to the whole thing, the kids are having fun making the mud pie but the actual meaning of the story, the pie… may not be so easy to swallow.
This appears to be exactly what Scott was going for. Being able to tell dirty little family secrets in a fashion where the audience can easily dismiss the grim matter as a simple folktale that happened once upon a time ago, is an act of brilliance on Zimmerman’s part. If indeed great stories will always have great actors, the cast, Kevin Barsaloux, Katie Mullins, Stephanie Rice, Josh Whitaker, James Stein, Katherine Dudas, Kevin Argus, Claire Sieradzki, and Kim Gaughan deserve a standing ovation.
To order tickets to The Secret in the Wings, visit the Debartolo Performing Arts Center here.
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