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 The play "Frozen" by Byrony Lavery will begin playing at the Kiva Theatre on Wednesday. The play is co-presented by 6th Street Productions and The University of Theatre and Film and it is directed by Scott Doughty. Jake Barber/Argonaut
In the circular stage of the Kiva, concrete bricks stand idly by. The set’s colors are gray and cold. Within the first two minutes of the play, the character Agnetha has an emotional breakdown, and tears start flowing. The act sets the mood for the rest of the play.
“It’s extremely emotionally taxing,” said Katherine Kerrick, who plays Agnetha. “It’s emotional chaos, really.”
“Frozen,” the play written by Bryony Lavery, is set in present-day England and follows the lives of three seemingly unconnected people who are frozen in their emotional or mental states.
The play will be performed in the Kiva Theatre Wednesday through Sunday this week.
One evening, 10-year-old Rhona goes missing, and her mother, Nancy, retreats into a state of frozen hope. Agnetha, an American psychologist comes to England to research a thesis on serial killers, one of whom is Ralph. Drawn together by horrific circumstances, the three characters embark on a dark and emotional journey.
“When I first read it, I was struck by its raw power,” director Scott Doughty said. “It’s beautiful in its text, haunting in its themes.”
Doughty was assigned this play for his MFA exit thesis project.
“I have all my marbles in this one,” he said.
Doughty said the play is about people daring to live through life’s most horrific moments.”
“It addresses issues we all share — coping and surviving,” he said.
Kerrick said it is difficult to read the play without being affected. Although it is a heavy play, it shows a hopeful process of coming out of depressing times, she said.
Kevin Partridge plays Ralph, a serial killer.
“Ralph is your typical English pedophilic serial killer,” Patridge said. “It’s interesting because he doesn’t consider himself a killer; he’s just fulfilling his wants.”
Partridge said in preparation for the role, he researched extensively. He wanted to know what makes people break and found there’s a basic formula — dramatic childhood, sexual abuse and the decision to fulfill one’s needs.
“Ralph is a result of circumstances,” Partridge said.
At the age of 10, Ralph was left by his mother and became subject to his father’s sexual abuse. As a result, he stopped growing intellectually.
“I have to play truth to it,” Partridge said. “ I can’t just be a disgusting pervert. It’s an illness; certain parts of the brain don’t develop the right or wrong sense.”
Agnetha explores this and questions in her thesis whether it is “a sin or a symptom.”
Ralph is frozen in the 10-year-old mental state of “he sees it, he wants it, he gets it,” Partridge said.
Partridge has two daughters. The oldest is about Ralph’s age and is where Partridge draws his inspiration.
“You have to find beauty in every character you play,” he said. “That’s where the art is.”
Kimberly Borst, graduate student in theatre performance, plays Nancy. Nancy is a British middle class woman whose little girl is taken away. For 20 years, she thinks the child is still alive. Eventually, she learns the child was raped and killed. Over the course of the play, Nancy learns how to forgive her daughter’s killer, Ralph.
“Personally, I don’t think I could ever forgive someone like Ralph,” Borst said.
Borst herself is not married and has no children, but through research and the help of a psychologist, she learned about the pain parents go through after losing a child. “The pain manifests on their face,” Borst said. “It never leaves the parents.”
“It’s the heaviest role I’ve done, by far,” she said. “I’ve had nightmares, and for the first week, I left rehearsal nauseous every night.”
Borst said people should see this play because it will challenge the preconceived knowledge of what people can go through.
Understudy Angela Vogel said every one of the actors has grown and opened up to embrace the text.
“They’ve taken on really scary topics and have been willing to go to really depressing and dark topics,” she said.
“Frozen” opens at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the KIVA Theatre and will play until Oct. 19.
Doughty said “Frozen” revolves around relevant topics as winter approaches and things seem overwhelming.
“It reminds us that absolutely nothing is unbearable,” he said.
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