Washing Machine

Description
Jason Stuart’s loose retelling of a five-year-old’s tragic death inside a washing machine is audaciously entertaining. Akiko Kosaka crafts a symbolic, Tim Burton–esque tunnel with clear, suspended water bags and Brendan McCall contributes jarring choreography, which turns a little girl’s game into an industrial danse macabre. Dana Berger tackles her multiple characters like a fullback, amd Michael Chamberlin’s superb direction is a knockout, too, cleanly accenting each shift with a grim ka-chunk. But the play is ultimately limited by its rigid form: its effects are too mechanical to fully put us through the wringer.—Aaron Riccio