Review: Gripping FROZEN at ArtsWest Feels Like a Documentary at Times

First off, Dear Readers, let me explain that you will see no singing Ice Princesses or wacky snowmen in this show. This particular play called "Frozen", currently playing at ArtsWest, is about as far away from the Disney movie as it could be considering it deals with serial killers. And while the performances are quite powerful and it's a very interesting subject, at times it feels like a lecture on serial killers and other times a drama with some superfluous storylines.

Bryony Lavery's play focuses on three people; Agnetha (Jonelle Jordan), a psychologist who studies serial killers, Ralph (Peter Crook), a man with an unnatural affinity for killing young girls and one of Agnetha's subjects, and Nancy (Amy Thone), the mother of one of Ralph's victims. As Agnetha gets more and more into the mind of the killer, Nancy seeks closure to his heinous crime.

The show opens with a series of monologues as we get to know each of the characters and then evolves into more interpersonal actions but we still keep getting lectures interspersed from the psychologist on her findings. And while the exchange between the mother and the killer is quite riveting as well as their individual moments as we get inside their heads, the lectures feel like we've been put in a class we didn't choose to take. Plus, Lavery injects personal information about the psychologist beginning with a quite confusing breakdown before we've even been introduced to her, which felt extraneous to the story as a whole. I understand within the context of the play why we want to get to know the killer and those affected by his actions but what does the relationship of the academic and her colleague have to do with it except to fill time?

The performances have some outstanding moments but then what would you expect from people of this caliber? Jordan does a fine job conveying her intentions in the moment but I still had a hard time getting hooked into her character but that's more a problem with the script than the actress. But it's Thone and Crook you want to catch. Each of their individual journeys into the minds of their characters are quite thoughtful and gripping but it's their combined interaction that amounts for an amazing payoff to the piece. I just wish we hadn't meandered around so long in getting there.

This is one of those plays that I can see the interest it might engender and how it's a great vehicle for some powerful performances but it's not anything I need to see again. And so, with my three-letter rating system I give ArtsWest's "Frozen" a slightly interested MEH+. Maybe it would have been better with a wacky talking snowman. No, probably not.

"Frozen" performs at ArtsWest through May 14th. For tickets or information contact the ArtsWest box office at 206-938-0339 or visit them online at www.artswest.org.

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