Some subjects can strike a nerve—taboo subjects that no one wants to talk about. Watching a dramatization of it on stage can further push people beyond their comfort level. Yet, theatre pushes forward and forces the audience to face these taboos. Bryony Lavery’s 2004 Tony nominated play, Frozen, directed by award-winning director/actor Billy Hayes playing at the Lillian Theatre, focuses on the lives of three people who are connected by one thing: the abduction and murder of a young girl by a pedophile and how it those three people for the next twenty years.

A young girl is sent on an errand to her grandmother’s house but she never makes it there and she never returns home. Her mother, Nancy (Jennete Goldstein), is left without resolution and uncertainty of her daughter’s condition. Over the course of twenty years, she becomes a spokesperson for an organization that helps unite parents with children that have disappeared from their lives—she still has hope that her own daughter will one day walk through her door and tell her she is finally home. It is not until years later that she learns the tragic outcome of her young child.

The abductor is Ralph (Hugh Mason), a pedophile who’s M.O. is to lure young girls to his van. In his mind he sees his actions as purely innocent; these girls wanted it. He has no remorse, which is ultimately his downfall.

Agnetha (Deanne Dawson), is the American who travels to England (where the play takes place) to study Ralph for her thesis and explores the issue of whether the act of serial killers can be considered an act of evil or an act of illness.

The play is explored through monologues that slowly unfold the story of these three characters journey. We get a full sense of these characters being frozen in this horrific moment in their lives. But then, the characters start to interact, and as their lives become intertwined, they become unfrozen from their emotional state of paralysis. “Sometimes you find yourself frozen, stuck in a place you need to escape from, or by an event lodged in time and frozen in your memory,” says Director Bill Hayes. As they begin to thaw, they are able to move past their immobility towards a better understanding. The central piece of the set is a giant icy blue sky that sometimes reminds us of the icy glaciers that serve as the metaphor of the play.

There are some unsettling conventions in the play that keeps it from becoming trite and allows for the audience to connect and identify to some degree with the three characters in the play—even Ralph. The playwright infuses the monologues and duologue’s with humor even at its darkest moments. But it does not distract from the issue; in fact, it helps humanize the situation. Another interesting thing is the fact that Ralph comes off as a charming and at times, sympathetic. Serial killers are charming, that is why they can get away with some of their monstrous acts. This production manages to swiftly guide the audience back and forth without manipulating—always allowing us to come to our own conclusions.

I highly recommend this play! If you would like to see it, here is all the information needed. www.plays411.com/frozen.

Frozen
Directed by Billy Hayes
The Lillian Theatre
1076 Lillian Way (at Santa Monica Blvd., 1 block west of Vine St.) - Map
Playing through March 22.Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sun at 3 p.m.
Tickets: $25
Reservations can be made and tickets can be purchased by calling Plays 411 at 323-960-5521 or online.

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