Russian bureaucrat Anna (Devin Rodger) is intimidated by her boss, a Ministry Director (Michael Mendonsa), in an intense interview/interrogation to locate important missing documents in "The Letters,” written by John W. Lowell. A taut psychological thriller set in Stalin’s paranoid 1931 Russia, "The Letters” performs at Burien Actors Theatre (www.burienactorstheatre.org, 206-242-5180) April 8 through May 1.
by Adriane Vetter
In a tiny office, lit like an old movie from the days of Gary Cooper and Tyrone Power (if those movies had been in color instead of black and white), two people play a game of cat and mouse in the days after Lenin, leading up to the dictatorship of Josef Stalin. Lighting designer Craig Orsinger has done his homework, making the sparse set (designed by Maggie Larrick) authentic enough so that one feels as
if this edge of the seat drama is indeed an old movie from Hollywood's Golden Age. And director Beau M.K. Pritchard has created an aura of tension that never lets up, setting the audience up for the dynamic ending.
Played with wire taut precision, actors Michael Mendonsa (who plays 'The Director', a man at once engaging and menacing) and Devin Rodger (who plays 'Anna', a timid woman, who is also fiercely
confrontational and delightfully logical) kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering where this drama
would end up. The two play well off each other, as what seems like a simple matter of question and answer by Mendonsa's 'Director', quickly turns into a terrifying interrogation and accusations begin to
fill Anna's character with tension (which is perfectly displayed on her lean face, often shadowed by Orsinger's expert lighting design). And as this little 'game' goes forward, and the two dance, parry and
shift power balances, the subject of the interrogation, allegedly 'obscene' letters by composer Tchaikovsky, hang in the air like a gunshot waiting to happen.
Anna at first simply answers questions, not realizing she is caught like a mouse in a trap by The Director, and when bits of information about her co-workers and their supposed collaboration in
a plot hinted at by Mendonsa's ever scarier 'Director', she becomes more wary. Still, she won't be bullied by this man, who she continues to defy, eventually putting him in the role of mouse, as she lays out a logical argument to him, which he, of course doesn't believe. Or does he? To find out the answer to this labyrinthine, slick thriller you'll have to buy a ticket and see 'The Letters', opening April 8th at Burien Actor's Theatre, in Burien at 14501 4th Ave. S.W. Shows are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and ticket prices range from 7 to 20$, and student tickets are only 10$. This gem of a thriller runs through May 1st, so hurry in and prepare for a night of solid drama done with a deft hand, by one of Burien's best.
