CRITIC'S PICK
In the sweltering New England summer of 1892, Lizzie Borden was accused of the brutal killing of her father and stepmother. Though acquitted, the speculation around Lizzie as the true perpetrator who got away with murder-times-two endures. As the schoolyard rhyme goes: “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks. And when she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.”
Currently onstage at the Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton, Lizzie is a bloody good high-octane Rock opera sung by four supremely talented women. A collaboration between writers Tim Maner, Alan Stevens Hewitt and Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, Lizzie assumes that audiences are familiar with the grim fate of the Bordens. The production is uninterested in which other residents of Fall River, Massachusetts might have had murderous motives or access to the Borden home that fateful August day. The show doesn’t wring its hands over who killed the Bordens; rather it points an unapologetic, almost gleeful, finger directly at Lizzie herself. We know who — what we don’t know is why. Delightful and disturbing, Lizzie spends its dramatic energy exploring what awful life experiences might have left Lizzie with such a merciless axe to grind.
The central tension of the show is derived from Lizzie’s frenzied, fraught journey to commit the deadly deed. Abused, consequently unhinged and brimming with rage, she sings through her pain: “You touch with selfish hands./This is not love./You speak in cold demands./This is not love.”
The Bordens’ no-nonsense Irish maid Bridget anchors the story. Played by a commanding Leslie Goddard, Bridget puts it like this: “In the house of Borden there’s a lock on every door./In every room a prisoner of a long, silent war.” In other words, the house of Borden is a powder keg waiting for a spark.
When their despised stepmother makes a play for the family’s wealth, it sends Lizzie’s frosty sister Emma — played by a regal Natalie Bird — on an impromptu vacation. Alone and grief-stricken over the death of her pet pigeons — killed by her father — Lizzie careens over the edge.
Dressed in combat boots and lace, her hair swirling around her as she screams/sings into a handheld microphone, Deánna Giulietti’s Lizzie struts across the stage, a Punk-Metal princess struggling to control her desperation and later relishing in the chaos and freedom that flows in the wake of her actions. Lizzie’s neighbor, the sweet and kind Alice — played by an angelic Michaella Waickman — adores Lizzie and makes every attempt to catch her before she hits rock bottom. Their relationship offers the fragile Lizzie much-needed solace from the living hell of the Borden household. But in the end, Lizzie just can’t believe that anyone can keep her safe.
Sonically and conceptually, the show is reminiscent of Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s hit musical Spring Awakening: a buttoned-up period piece on the brink of busting out of its corset that channels all of its pent-up rage into a killer guitar solo. All four women are nothing short of incredible, both individually and as an ensemble. Director Jamie Cordes has kept the production’s staging minimal, yet ruthlessly effective, somehow leaving both everything and nothing to the imagination. The band sits onstage; in Human Race’s intimate space, the audience feels like they are also part of the show’s reeling action. A high-backed chair, a boiling hot tea set and a rickety barn all swirl beneath John Rensel’s trance-inducing lighting design. Ray Zupp’s ghoulish yet gorgeous set design and Liz Bourgeois jaw-dropping costumes have sifted through the show’s era, fabulously deconstructing and modernizing selected details.
In watching this production, it’s hard to imagine a musical genre more fitting for this story. The grungy blend of Punk and Heavy Metal — complete with head banging and growling vocals — captures both Lizzie’s inner life and the media circus that ensues following the killings and trial. These women are not sugar, spice and everything nice; they are here to make some noise.
A gorgeously staged, riotous, thumping performance, the Human Race’s Lizzie is an electric crime of excess that shatters ear drums and expectations.
Lizzie runs through June 30 at Human Race Theatre Company (126 N. Main St., Dayton). More info/tickets: humanracetheatre.org.
