The 2013 drama The Tangled Skirt refers to itself as a “Whistle-stop Noir for the Stage.” Playwright Steve Braunstein’s premise is a clever set-up for an intimate two-person drama. Two strangers run into each other in an otherwise completely abandoned bus depot in the middle of the night. Both are desperately waiting for the next bus out of town. There’s a man. There’s a woman. There are secrets. There’s murder involved. There is mystery. The Samuel French description of the play actually uses the cliche “a deadly game of cat and mouse.” So naturally the two of them get pitted against each other in what is likely to be a really fun, little thriller with which to welcome summer. Charles “Skip” Grover directs.
UW-Whitewater’s production of The Tangled Skirt runs Jun. 28 - Jul. 2 at the Hicklin Studio Theatre on the campus of UW-Whitewater on 950 W. Main St. in Whitewater. For more information, visit UW-Whitewater online. It’s 90 minutes long without intermission, so it may be a little out of the way for Milwaukee audiences, but there’s plenty of time to get back to downtown for drinks after the show.
