Photo Credit: Traveling Lemur Productions, LLC.
“I can’t find a quiet place within me... this prison where I live,” laments the well-known 19th century stage actor Edwin Booth at the end of This Prison Where I Live. For Booth is one tortured soul; despondent over the death of his first wife while despising the second; forgetting his lines playing the lead in Shakespeare’s Richard II; and most all, brother to one of the most infamous killers in history—John Wilkes Booth. JWB assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. And the rest, as they say, is history. But the effects of that history on the remaining members of the Booth family are always present—and lingering nearby, even 14 years later.
In the Midwest premiere by Theater RED, This Prison Where I Live is based on the life events of the other famous Booth brother, Edwin, during a run of Richard II.
Written and directed by well-known and highly respected actor Angela Iannone, This Prison pulls in the audience from the start as Booth rehearses and JWB shows up—as a ghost. But other worlds aside, they are after all, brothers. So the family rivalry— and love/hate aspects that follow—set in, making for an engrossing drama with well-informed writing, stellar acting and spot-on direction, all in 95 minutes.
Cory Jefferson Hagen is the ghostly John Wilkes, sassy with a southern drawl, knowing exactly how to push his mortal brother to the edge and then pull back—just enough to keep the game going. It’s a fascinating performance to watch, as is Jared McDaris as Edwin, who refused to speak JWB’s name after the assassination. Edwin survived his own assassin who tried to shoot him during a performance. Brandon Haut’s depiction of shooter Mark Gray is perfectly creepy, filled with the requisite tension of emotional unraveling; even his ill-fitting suit and twitching hands signal trouble ahead for the already tortured Edwin. Marcee Doherty-Elst is Edwin’s smothering second wife, her initial guise of sanity slipping into a maelstrom of madness. Andrea Burkholder rounds out the solid cast as the silent ghost of first wife, Mollie.
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For lovers of Shakespeare and American history, This Prison Where I Live provides one solution as to why Edwin survived his own assassination attempt. Yet, he still remains in a prison of his own making, which only he can release himself from—if he dares.
Through Sept. 9 at the Tenth Street Theater, 628 N. 10th St. For more information, visit www.theaterred.com
