“Eat, Slay, Leave” Shivers with Halloween Horror at 3rd Act
Dani Becker as Amy creating a ceremony in “Eat, Slay, Leave” Photo courtesy of April Porterfield
This is the season for horrific theatre—for Halloween. Horror is hard to do, especially when it is a little off the beaten path (so to speak) but that is what 3rd Act Theatre achieves with the world premier production of “Eat, Slay, Leave” by Heather Meyer.
The show is about a young woman and her two best friends since childhood spending a weekend at the cabin in the woods that has been the family vacation spot forever. There are many wonderful memories the three friends made during summer breaks at the cabin and it is now going to be sold, so this is the last time to say goodbye to memorable scenes. The three girls are about to make new memories though, and these memories are chilling rather than thrilling, deathly rather than lively and spooky beyond belief.
The cabin has been in the family of Jessica, and she is the first to arrive for the nostalgic weekend. Jessica is no-nonsense, practical and precise in all her endeavors, reliable and resilient in her friendships, trustworthy and dependable. Soon, friend Gretchen arrives. Gretchen is recovering from a love affair that has ended badly and she is bad-tempered and full of rude ‘witticisms and the catty remark. Gretchen has never missed the opportunity to hurt those deserving of her verbal crude and smarmy comebacks.
Eventually the two are joined by Amy, the flighty one. Amy has made a career out of being helpless and cute always requiring a rescuing hand from friend and lover. She is enthusiastic about oddities and occultism although she lacks the discipline to understand what she is temporarily fascinated by. So, of course, she comes late with lots of luggage.
Bailey Lucien as Gretchen drowning her sorrows at the cabin in the woods. Photo courtesy of April Porterfield.
To say goodbye to the cabin Amy comes up with a ‘ceremony’ to begin their last days at the beautiful woodland cabin. The ceremony includes a candle and aromatherapy as well as bath bombs and a meditative phrase to live by (or die by) should that be what is required—and that turns out to be exactly what is required!
Kate Adams is Jessica, a character that Adams perfects with her competence and organization. Bailey Lucien is the bad-tempered Gretchen and Dani Becker is the frivolous Amy. All three actors step up to the edge of stereotypical characters but they do not cross the line. Line crossing comes from the three actors who play the inverse girls. Jacey Nichole is J Inverse, Brooke Howard is G Inverse and Kimberley Burns is A Inverse. The line crossed is not into stereotypical characterizations exactly. It is more a line crossed over in every aspect of life, death, plausibility, possibility and straight into the realm created by Rod Serling in ‘The Twilight Zone’ of yesteryear.
Kate Adams as Jessica pensively remembering childhood memories at the cabin in the woods. Photo courtesy of April Porterfield
Amandanell Bold directs the all-female cast of six with the assistance of Dakota Lee Bryant, Stage Manager and the expertise of Reed Bentley, Fight Director. The bones of the show are well directed, and, although the performances are a little rough around the edges the ‘campy’ aspects are perfectly exposed.
Heather Meyer is the playwright responsible for “Eat, Slay, Leave” and 3rd Act Theatre scores a hit by premiering the show here in Oklahoma City. Meyer hails from Minneapolis where she is head writer for The Theatre of Public Policy. She holds an MFA from Spaulding University in Playwriting and is an alum of The Second City Satire Writing Program. It will be nice to see additional offerings from Meyer, especially when directed by Amandanell Bold a director with no shortage of bold ideas in her direction.
Don Taylor’s set is beautiful and Christine Jolly’s costumes are superb and must have been a lot of fun to assemble! “Eat, Slay,, Leave” shows from October 21, 2022 to November 6, 2022 and the curtain is 8:00 pm for evening performances and 2:30 pm for the Sunday matinee.
For further information and tickets visit www.3rdacttheatreco.com or call 405-593-8093. 3rd Act Theatre is located in the Shoppes at NorthPark Mall, 12040 N. May Avenue in Oklahoma City.
Eat, drink and be merry at Christmas, “Eat, Slay, Leave” is definitely Halloween.