Important people and events from our impressionable past can often have a hold on us that our present can't live up to. In Lucy Thurber's newly-revised Killers and Other Family (which first premiered at Rattlestick in its 2000-2001 season), Lizzie (Samantha Soule) has moved from her hometown in Massachusetts to New York City to escape her past and go to college. At home one day working on her thesis, there's a knock at the door and it's her brother Jeff (Dashiell Eaves) and his friend Danny (Shane McRae)- they've killed someone and need money so that they can go to Mexico. Lizzie agrees to help them, then almost immediately is seduced/raped by Danny, with whom she has a murky sexual past.
Things are complicated even further when Lizzie's lover Claire (Aya Cash), who she'd intended to keep in the dark about the visitation, comes home earlier than expected bearing a surprise lunch.
The play is full of disturbing psychological moments- Lizzie's conditioned Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to Danny and her brother, Jeff and Danny's expectations from Lizzie and their amnesiac denials of their crime, the revelation of Danny's first experiences with Lizzie- all are psychologically valid and combine to form a nearly unbearable tension that unfortunately doesn't lead up to much that makes sense in the end, with a resolution which is neither happy or un- the script seems to merely shrug with a "shit happens". Danny is really the only character affected by the final moments, and it's unlikely that his character will undergo any sort of renascence from his new revelations.
The actors all do great work under Caitriona McLaughlin's capable direction- Soule has a bitch of a job before her playing the fragmented Lizzie, and pulls it off impressively. McRae smolders as Danny the charming sociopath- one can empathize with Lizzie's attraction to him while still being scared shitless. Cash is lovely as the out-of-her-depth Claire- the darkly funniest moments of the play come from her as she blithely assumes that the folks surrounding her are sane and reasonable. Eaves anchors the play as the ineffectual Jeff, who can't seem to get anyone to follow his plans.
Set by John McDermott is a fine rendition of a small but pleasant New York apartment. David Anzuelo's fight direction is realistic and powerful.
Killers and Other Family
by Lucy Thurber
At Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
224 Waverly Place
Visit, www.rattlestick.org for photos, tickets, and information.
