Dark Comedy of Twisted Truths

Kaylene Howard and Allie Babich in Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of The Moors by Jen Silverman. Photo by Ross Zentner

​Playwright Jen Silverman’s The Moors is many things. It’s a dark comedy about human connection. It’s a spoof of the work of the the Brontë sisters. It’s a meditation on the nature of truth in a fundamentally warped world of human emotion. More than anything it’s a deeply engrossing and provocative piece of theatre. Renaissance Theaterworks stages a production of the play this autumn.


Suzan Fete directs a deeply engaging, little ensemble of actors. Kaylene Howard shows considerable strength in the role of Emilie--a woman who has come to an estate in the middle of nowhere to serve as governess to a small child. As she is introduced to the two sisters who live their and their servant, it gradually becomes clear that both the child she was meant to look after AND the man who had hired her are the products of some deranged imagination.


Sarah Sokolovic is deliciously harsh as Agatha--the sister who has taken on the basic responsibilities of running the estate. Sokolovic wields Agatha’s cold and cunningly comic precision like a scalpel that gets right into the heart of Silverman’s script. Allie Babich dreamily cascades across the stage in the role of the lonely sister Hudley. She is quite excited to have a new member of the household. With any luck the new governess might like diving into the strange fantasies that she seems totally obsessed with. Emily Vitrano rounds-out the central cast in the role of Marjory--a woman who plays many roles with many identities throughout the estate. The role could have read as abstract craziness, but Silverman definitely has a structure beneath the madness which Vitrano is wise to bring to the stage.


Silverman pairs humans with a couple of animals that serve as a subplot with a sympathetic theme to the rest of the action. Reese Madigan plays earthbound animalistic passion in the role of a talking mastiff who befriends a moor-Hen played by Marti Gobel. Gobel has a kind of stunning perfection about her stage presence that seems a bit at odds with the fragility of a wounded moor-hen who is being nursed back to health by a massive canine. Gobel brings a powerful vulnerability to the role that serves as an endearing connection to Madigan’s mastiff.


Jeffrey D. Kmiec’s scenic design is cleverly minimalist. The main set feels elegant and spacious. The moors which rest beyond the estate seem to go on forever even though they’re really only a tiny swath of stage beyond the heart of the action. There’s quite a bit of music that feeds in and around the edges of the production that could have felt really jarring in places, (Hudley's power ballad near the end of the play could have been particularly discordant.) Jill Anna Ponasik has done a clever job of blending the musical interludes into the rest of the production.


This is the second time that I’ve seen The Moors in less than a year. (UWM’s Peck School did a staging of the comedy at the beginning of last November.) The one thing that really stands out to me about a production of The Moors is its exploration of the deeply conflicted relativity of truth. Nearly every aspect of what’s being presented is up to interpretation. What’s real? Is the estate truly immense, or do all of the rooms REALLY look alike? How much of what ANYONE is saying can be relied on when everyone has a different reason for lying about...anything? It’s such a weird existential playground populated by such deeply enjoyable madness. I could see a production of this every year. It’s great fun.


Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of The Moors runs through November 10th at the Next Act Theatre space on 255 S. Water Street. For ticket reservations and more, visit Renaissance online. ​