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Fresh Mountain Air (Susan Elkin reviews)

Fresh Mountain Air

Michael Eichler

Directed by Penny Gkritzapi

Drayton Arms Theatre

 

Star rating: 3

This tight little thriller should never have been interrupted by a tension-damaging interval, just 35 minutes in. If the intention was to enable the pub to sell more drinks then it really doesn’t work because most people simply stayed put at the performance I saw.

Three middle class, well educated American women, who don’t know each other, arrive at a well equipped and comfortable hiking lodge somewhere in the remote forests of Washington State.  Kayla is from California, Leslie is from Colorado and Alyssa from Texas so their backgrounds are very different. They are teamed to hike together for the next three days while the landlady provides meals. There is no wifi and they’re 20 miles from the nearest town.

Then the landlady unaccountably disappears as do the three hire cars in which they’ve driven themselves there from the airport in Seattle –  and they realise there’s a lot more to worry about than possible encounters with bears. Suddenly we’re in the realms of tension and mystery with some pretty alarming news on the old fashioned transistor radio, the only link with the outside world because someone has cut the landline cable. It’s quite a treat to watch an edge-of-the piece like this when you have no idea where it’s going.

Olivia Cordell is outstanding as Leslie, the brittle clever cynic. She prowls round the set not tolerating the shortcomings of the other two (except when she’s terrified) and is richly convincing.  Julianna Galassi’s character Alyssa, a hiking first-timer, is a gentler soul who suffers from xylophobia (fear of woods) but, since she has grown up in Houston, is the only one who has ever seen a gun. Galassi finds all Alyssa’s nuances, terrors and inner turmoil amd makes sure we share them. Kayla (Julia Thurston) is a brasher character who speaks very loudly and feels a bit false which may, of course, be a deliberate directorial decision to contrast Kayla with the other two.

Michael Eichler’s dialogue pounds along naturalistically, especially when the chips are down and two characters do an outrageous volte-face.   And director Penny Gkritzapi makes imaginative use of every inch of the roomy playing space and set. This enjoyable 70 minute piece is pretty well paced too – or it would be if we didn’t have that glaringly unnecessary break.

 

Author information
Susan Elkin Susan Elkin is an education journalist, author and former secondary teacher of English. She was Education and Training Editor at The Stage from 2005 - 2016
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