PHOTO CREDIT: Andy Walsh
The Feast is not a pretty tale. Playwright Andrew Parchman’s script, while maddeningly elusive in plot details, is clear in subject. As the flesh-hungry monster in the forest tells the young man it will soon possess, “There is only power. Only might is right. Don’t allow love to stifle your true course of evolution. It’s a dog eat dog world.” Or in this case, monster against monster, each in human disguise and beholden to a corporation of the sort that H.P. Lovecraft might imagine.
Quasimondo Physical Theatre presented the world premiere of Parchman’s fantasy for actors and puppets at the company’s home in Old North Milwaukee. The Arthaus, as it’s named, is slowly being rehabbed and opened to the public as money becomes available. The goal is a center for experimental theater and dance. If Milwaukee is to be one of the nation’s art incubators, a place for artists to try new ideas and forge paths for future generations, it certainly needs such places. Since what will become the main performance space is under construction, The Feast was performed in a smaller, still raw room off the main entrance with a few tiered rows of comfortable chairs and makeshift lighting. The full house on opening night included many of Milwaukee’s fine fringe artists of all ages. The hope in the room for all that the Arthaus represents was palpable.
Like the space, the play will develop. Quasimondo performers are skilled in movement and puppeteering. Their performance style is endearingly unpretentious. Staging choices can be courageous, even if it’s the result of the proverbial relationship between necessity and invention. The set for The Feast is a forest of darkly-colored paper trees, just shadowy trunks and lower branches visible. The characters are mercenaries who’ve been promised millions to recover a package from a contested region in a war between the U.S. and Russia. Or so the soldiers think.
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Two of them are women, nicely played by Kath Leverenz and Sarah Seefeldt. Joe Riggenbach is the highly toxic Sergeant Craven. Will Hughes and, until his character is eaten, Parchman complete the team. Parchman also operates—he’s visible inside it—a gorgeous puppet monster. Jessi Miller expertly commandeers a haunting smaller one. Brian Rott is perfect as a horrified Russian captive. Alex Roy is superb as the unlucky hero. “When you’re done here,” Craven asks him in the final moment, “what will you become?”
Through Saturday, Oct. 5, at the North Milwaukee Arthaus, 5151 N. 35th St. For tickets, visit quasimondo.org.
