Word: nella
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Wellman's "A Murder of Crows," we are presented with the Phillips clan--Southern, rural, brutal--at their nadir. Nella (Alexandra Marolachakis) is widowed after her husband dies in a freak accident; she and her children, Susannah and Andrew (Rebecca Wolfe and Dan Goor), are forced to move in with their seamy relatives, who spend most of their time either bickering or at the racetrack...
What fascinates here is not Wellman's imaginative yet forced theatrical parlour tricks, but rather the strong ensemble cast and the mesmerizing visual and emotional pitches achieved by their director, David Levine. When the play opens with Nella, we know we are already standing on unsure ground. In Marolachakis's hands, Nella's dialogue seems to come from a place both ancient and newborn. Her opening monologue in which she declares, "you always live downwind of something peculiar," feels just right...
...relatives who Nella turns to for shelter are equally unique. Georgia, played at full throttle by Zoe Sarnat, is a white-trash-from-hell maniac, who constantly deflects attention away from the rivet in her head and towards the destitute houseguests. Her husband, Howard, (Alex Haseltine) is even more over...