02:18 PM CDT on Monday, July 23, 2007
By LAWSON TAITTE / Theater Critic
Only four of the 10 plays in this year's Festival of Independent
Theatres are works by established non-Texas playwrights. But those
seemingly standard choices turn out to be both fresh and important.
Over the second weekend of the festival at the Bath House Cultural
Center, a couple of area premieres of major scripts received
outstanding productions.
Chills and thrills
The Blue Room strikes me as rather a cold fish of a play, but I love
The Filmmaker's Mystery. Young playwright Roberto Aguirre-
Sacasa, who also writes comic books, turns out scripts that could
have been inspirations for TV shows like Heroes or Lost . This one
(half of a diptych, originally) gives us the story of an uncanny
encounter on a train.
Filmmaker Joe Manning (Matthew Humphrey) sits by a young doctor
named Nathan West (Todd Haberkorn) and the two hit it off. After a
bizarre accident, Joe gets increasingly drawn into bizarre
experiences that involve ghosts and murders and trips to hell and
beyond. It's all delightfully spooky.
Theater Fusion gives The Filmmaker's Mystery a brilliant treatment.
Elizabeth Van Winkle is especially fine in a multiplicity of women's
roles. The simple staging gives your imagination lots of room to
work. This is one you have to see.
