British playwright Graham Farrow's searing drama is like a sharp punch to the gut, the type that leaves you winded. Director David Colwell and dramaturge-literary director Jonathan Josephson have taken Farrow's text and, in its California premiere, successfully Americanized it to make it more accessible to our audiences (as well as to its cast). Farrow's wrenching pas de deux is an unforgiving look at personal pain and loss. Its two characters are a man -- devastated by the abduction, rape, and murder of his young son -- and the woman who published the killer's account of his criminal career, a runaway bestseller (shades of Fred Goldman and the would-be publisher of If I Did It).
Mike Miller (Casey Long) visits the office of Evelyn Ayles (Laurel Feierbach), armed with a box cutter, a gallon of gasoline, a cigarette lighter, and a vengeful mind. What follows is a harrowing hour that unfolds in real time where the at-first tightly wound Mike unleashes his hatred toward "the woman who made my son's killer a celebrity" -- seething anger that includes choking her, strangling her with a necktie and dousing her with gasoline. His voice shaking with emotion, Long unfurls his grief-stricken character's uncontrollable rage, guilt-wracked conscience and numbing sorrow. Playing for time, Feierbach's Evelyn shares emotionally devastating parts of her life (to prove her own suffering) and helps him craft a plan that would exact payback from the man who murdered his son -- the latter a ploy so clever we hardly even see its results coming.
Joe Pew's sleek set design, John MacDonald's realistic projections, Dave Mickey's sound design, and Martin Noyes' fight direction are all of a piece, and Feierbach is credibly ambitious, success-driven, and self-protective, but this is clearly Long's show, his character a hollowed-out shell beaten the moment he let go of his son's hand for the last time.
Presented by and at the Chance Theater,
5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim.
Thu. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Feb. 10-Mar. 16.
(714) 777-3033. www.chancetheater.com.