A middle-America couple answer reportage-tv questions, in the wake of the small-town murder for which their son has been convicted. They are good people shocked by their community turning against them, forced into the media spotlight by an event that they cannot explain.
The production is interesting on several levels: the ‘off-camera’ voice that questions them frequently makes mistakes concerning their names and the facts of the case; slides projected behind them contain a mix of imagery that is real (in the world of the play) and increasingly surreal; the questions they are posed become ever-more loaded and metaphysically sweeping, this one murder seemingly the key to a universal puzzle.
Most gratifyingly, the audience is never provided with absolute evidence of the son’s guilt or innocence – in exactly the same way that the parents are denied proper closure. Although the circumstances of the case build up increasingly unfavourably, the couple have no choice but to believe their son, and we leave them frustrated and socially destroyed by their loving faith. Sometimes we don’t get the answers we seek, even in the theatre.
go/no-go? GO
