Lives are "Crooked" in Catherine Treischman's play of the same name, now being produced by Thinking Cap Theatre at Fort Lauderdale's The Vanguard. There is enough meat on the bones of this play for plenty of substance, but director Nicole Stodard has enriched it with some nuances that make "Crooked" more of a stand out had it been presented at its face value.
The story is about Laney, a 14 year old would-be writer, who has an odd hump on her back, which makes her an outcast at her new school.The hump doesn't make her a hunchback she states, it's caused by the muscles in her back. "They're working against one another," she says. "It's called dystonia. Having a humpback is called kyphosis. I don't have kyphosis. I have dystonia. It's different. It's temporary. I'm glad I have it," she proudly announces.
She and her mother have moved back to mother Elisa's hometown of Oxford, Miss. Laney is the new girl at school, tomboyish and with the strange disfiguration, she's hasn't made friends easily.
Her mother has her own crookedness – she's left her husband behind in another town. (No use divulging them here; that would be a plot spoiler.) She's broken down, and has taken to covering up her sadness in directing her anger at her daughter, throwing jabs and barbs. She drinks too much cheap red wine directly out of a bottle, and then she runs her mouth.
Laney does make a friend at school, a girl named Maribel, another kid that doesn't fit in. She's a preacher's daughter, a bit overweight. She announces that she has stigmata (this is an afflication, whereas someone has pain, in this case in the middle of her hands, in the same place where Jesus suffered at the crucifixion. Part of Christian mysticism.)
There's an uncomfortability that Treischman inherently weaves within her play: Laney's macabre stories that she reads aloud for shock value, the teen's dystonia, Laney's sexual confusion as she proudly tells her mother she's a "holiness lesbian" after Maribel helps her to accept her Savior, then gives the preacher's daughter a kiss. Maribel's reaction when Laney writes a story that alludes to her sexual longings for the girl. And Elisa's drunken rages where she rants about what she's lost in life, including her husband, and the malicious barbs she tosses the teen's way.
Krystal Millie Valdes as Laney has the difficult task of being a convincing teenager, but not just an ordinary kid, but someone with a complexity that goes beyond her years. And Valdes finds the way into Laney to bring that out with a too-big personality that's hiding plenty of pain.
Elizabeth Price as the woe-is-me mom gives Elise a dose of self pity that never comes off as trite, but more of a yearning for the past, yet we can see in her that she doesn't have much hope for her future.
Daryl Patrice shines as Maribel, deftly navigating a role that must embody a range of emotions, from cheerful to hurt, and back again. Patrice imbues in Maribel a magnetism that's irrepressible.
The set design engages immediately with bible quotes in white letters on a black floor. There are stained glass windows that reference a church, and a grocery list for Elise's compulsion of making lists. On the back wall is the dictionary definition of crooked, and on the back stage right wall is the story that Laney reads about her fictional Ernest. "Ernest's hands smelled like lemons." Lines drawn through some of the prose. This is actually the only instruction in the script for the set design. The rest is unique to this production. Alyiece Moretto-Watkins did the set design. Sometimes the lighting is stark (Joel De Sousa) did the lighting design and it is juxtaposed to those times when we expect cool lighting. Stark is off balance in this setting. It works.
Other unique additions include live music played by Bree-Anna Obst of old-timey gospel songs. It's unobtrusive, understated, and lovely.
Stodard adds another element of purposeful uncomfortability. While the audience should feel as if they are part of this intimate three-person tragicomedy, we're made to feel distanced. She's chosen to have her playing space -- living room and other playing areas-- spread out. You'll feel as if you shouldn't be drawn into these character's worlds entirely. And it isn't by accident. It helps to keep everything off balance. Crooked, perhaps.
"Crooked" runs at Thinking Cap Theatre through Sunday, Sept. 30. 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday. The Vanguard Sanctuary for the Arts, 1501 S. Andrews Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale. www.vanguardarts.org. Tickets, $40. For tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2922381 or thinkingcaptheatre.com or (954) 610-7263.
