Realms of the Untold
Realms of the Untold
By Cory Volence
Directed by Kent Vanderburgh and Corey Volence
Dark Side of Saturn
Presented at The Venue, Orlando FL.</strong>
Here’s the first volley in this year’s season of creep and horror. Local writer Corey Volence (will we EVER forget he wrote “Key of E”?) dishes up six tales of the scary. We start with “In the Blood” where a veteran actor (Ken Luzzader) meets his new understudy (John Reid Adams). The veteran sold his soul somewhere along the way and the Understudy helps him make what might be a bad life decision. I’m not certain you can actually sell your soul, but this short brings up the question: If you sued Satan in a civil trial, how many jurors would you need? The evening’s strongest piece came next. “The Old Swimming Hole” is a one woman monolog (Jan Taylor Hendricks) about her school yard taunting when she was seven. Torn between the warnings of her creepy Hungarian grandmother and the stuck up white trash neighbor kids she chooses unwisely to visit the old “swimming hole.” It’s more hell hole than swimming hole, and now she has the scars to prove it. Then we visit the most disturbing element of the evening tonight (outside of the moron who texted, cat called and wolf whistled through the entire show). “A Glimpse between the Cracks” offers a wild tale of a disgraced ancient history professor (Luzzader) and his psychiatric examiner (Monica Titus). There is no question he axe murdered most of the faculty at Creepy U, but it takes an on stage lobotomy artfully concealed behinds a personal lobotomy curtain to find out “why?” Some how he had a possessed obelisk stuck in the haystack of his mind. Looks like it must have hurt going in AND coming out.
The second act opens with a rather predictable undead romance. Ms. Titus is the sexy vampire, Chaz Krivan the torn young man who might become a willing victim. They have a great chemistry, but the show is largely Krivan asking questions about the “Lifestyle” and Titus giving what are ultimately arbitrary answers. Cute, but fluff. “One Minute ‘til Midnight” replays the opening scene in the 1983 tech thriller “War Games.” Miles Berman plays the pot vaping stoner whose job is hang out until its time to play Global Thermonuclear War. His ineffective and unhinged commander (Luzzader) puts up with weapons grade slacking; today he introduces a new recruit as his launch buddy (Adams). They debate the morality of their job and low chances of them actually launching; but when Attack Plan Romeo arrives everyone is tested and found wanting. We close the program close to where we began with “How to Sell Your Soul Wholesale.” Ms. Hendricks has a hot cougar look, but she want’s more. More looks, more youth, more money and more power. Can double teaming Satan (Luzzader and Adams) provide it? Turns out selling your soul is like selling your old car; a sharp dressed dealer can point out all the door dings and minor peccadillos that will lower your resale value. Will she accept a low ball offer? Well, it’s a thin market and you can’t exactly sell your soul to the J-man. Tonight’s first act was great, the second occasionally rocky, but all these stories felt complete and well executed. Was I scared? Please. That would take a fat letter from the IRA or a long “hmmm…” from my doctor.
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