Where do you go when you’re trying to escape your troubles? Well, Costa Rica, of course - at least that’s true of the main characters in Slowgirl.
The play opened this week at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.
Slowgirl tells the story of Becky, a high school student, who travels to her Uncle Sterling’s home in Costa Rica to escape a crisis at home. Throughout the show, the characters reveal surprising details about their lives back home and discover new things about themselves in the process.
“It’s a really beautiful piece about two people peeling away the layers of secrets, and masks that we wear and hide behind,” says Michael Wright, the director of the play.
With just two character, the play is dependent on its two leads, Sara Zientek (Becky) and Peter Reeves (Sterling), to carry the weight. Zientek and Reeves say the rehearsal process has been focused on creating that tight-knit relationship, both on and off stage.
The play deals with some heavy topics, but Wright hopes people find a hopeful message in its dialogue. “We’re all carrying lots of baggage, we’re all worried about the future but we just need to find like-minded people to help us get through it and push forward,” he says.
“There are times we feel lost at sea. We don’t have any buoys, we don’t have any markers," actor Peter Reeves says. "And it’s weird, they kind of, by this series of incidents, find each other through the storm and through the jungle."
