Stray Cat Theatre: ‘John’
player piano and a brightly lit portrait of an old woman with angry eyes staring straight out at the audience. The aging proprietor, Mertis (Shari Watts, excellent as always) is equally peculiar, and whole minutes go by in silence as she shuffles up and down stairs and tries to make the inn homey.
It’s just after Thanksgiving, and the only guests are a young couple who are visiting the area to tour the nearby Gettysburg Battlefield. Elias (Will Hightower) and Jenny (Michelle Chin) are both neurotic in ways that aren’t exactly Woody Allen cutesy, and their threeyear relationship has hit an icy patch. There’s not much more to the plot, but “John” isn’t about plot. It’s about character — human nature — and it’s also about the sinister reality lurking just below the surface of ordinary life.
This is only in part because the B&B might be haunted. The player piano has a tendency to start up on its own, and the Christmas tree lights turn themselves off and on. But the characters are mostly haunted by ghosts of their own making, whether it’s Elias all-too-ordinary jealousies or Jenny’s obsession with the inner lives of Reviewed Saturday, Sept. 17. Continues through Saturday, Oct. 1. Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway. $20-$30. 480-350-2822, straycattheatre.org. the dolls perched on the staircase. In “John,” the uncanny intrudes on the ordinary, and the ultimate effect is every bit as disturbing as the H.P. Lovecraft horror story that gets a creepy reading in the third act.
Unlike “The Flick,” “John” occasionally punctures the bubble of its naturalism with scene transitions meant to remind the audience that they are indeed watching a play. Yet this does nothing to relieve the stomach-knotting tension of the piece as Watts remains in character while she fusses with the curtain and reminds folks to turn off their cellphones. Before the third act, she performs these functions in an almost panicked rush that only adds to the mystery of the play’s unsettling energy.
That energy is subtle enough that many theatergoers will no doubt be unmoved by it. But if you happen to be attuned to Baker’s idiosyncratic frequency, her words — and this cast’s committed performances — will set your spinal column buzzing.