'Tis Pity She's A Whore by John Ford, 7 Towers Theatre Company at the Cathedral of Junk

(image: 7 Towers Theatre via Facebook)

by Michael Meigs


At the intermission beneath the giant writhing oak tree behind the Cathedral of Junk my wife leaned over and whispered. "These actors are really good."


John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's A Whore is a tangled skein, for sure, and it builds inexorably from a canter to a gallop to a thundering bloody finish that's if anything bloodier and more devastating than that of Shakespeare's Hamlet, staged some thirty years earlier. 'Tis Pity does not reach Shakespeare's heights but the thump of its meaty iambics and the hair-raising central intrigues of incest, betrayal, duplicity and murder deliver a spectacle from which you cannot divert your eyes, as much as sometimes you might wish to do so.


It's also a tour de force for the recently founded 7 Towers Theatre Company, the second smashing artistic success in its eight-month existence. This gives it so far the sort of clean sweep that World War II submarine crews would celebrate by hoisting a broom over the conning tower as they sailed back into port.


Director Christina Gutierrez and Aaron Black as her second chose to concentrate this explosive stuff into a small cast, assigning two and three roles to all except Kevin Gates, playing the obsessed and rabidly jealous brother Giovanni and to newcomer Sara Cormier as Annabella, the sister who cedes in docile, almost wooden fashion to his entreaties.


The rest of those on stage slip in, out and through the remaining characters with shifts of costume, altered stances, changed voices, and above all visible and highly credible changes of presence and motivation.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .