IRON
Iron famously sharpens iron, but it is just as famously brittle and susceptible to corrosion. All three qualities are on dramatic display in this artful clash of needy souls disguised as a mother and child reunion. There are four characters on the stage, and a fifth —our principals’ dead husband and father — looms large over the proceedings. But the show belongs to mother Fay, played here with frightening control by Rosina Reynolds. Her real-life daughter Kate Rose Reynolds gets the job of carrying the audience’s emotional load as daughter Josie. Yes, Fay’s in prison for life, but it’s Josie who starts the action by paying her a visit lo these many years after the awful and mysterious fact. It’s Josie who comes looking for a past she cannot remember and a sense of self she cannot craft without it. It’s Josie who rejoices in finally gaining a mother, only to be warned against her, and to discover that maybe there’s a reason she herself took such delight in burning her lover’s suits when he pricked her pride. And the younger Reynolds is up to the job. But it’s Fay who holds our attention — and, on occasion, makes us hold our breaths — as a Lady Hannibal Lecter: so pleasant and natural in conversation, so quietly calculating in her efforts to go about getting what she wants (quid pro quo, as Lecter famously requested), so terrifying when the mask slips. Not that she’s any sort of cartoon monster, mind you; she remains stubbornly human throughout. Playwright Rona Munro works methodically (some might say slowly) to simultaneously build the bond and illuminate the past, thoroughly earning her rather bleak conclusion.
When
Ongoing until Thursday, June 23, 2022
Hours
| Thursdays, 8pm-10:30pm |
| Fridays, 8pm-10:30pm |
| Saturdays, 2pm-4:30pm & 8pm-10:30pm |