The secret is out, and not just among audiences: Ochre House Theater is doing the most original dramatic work in Dallas. All of the plays it produces are written and directed by its four company members and have been cast mostly from the same small group of actors.
But the latter has changed in recent seasons. Performers normally seen on bigger local stages have joined the high-wire act that is an Ochre House show. The latest example is artist in residence Justin Locklear’s Blood Hammer Girl, one of his and the company’s most poised, sophisticated productions to date.
Another comic fable in the Ochre House tradition of setting plays in faraway lands in long-ago times, buoyed by songs that can be satirical and heart-tugging at the same time, it features five performers making their debuts on the troupe’s intimate storefront stage.
Lily Gast and Carson Wright bring considerable acting chops to the roles of a sick mother and her hapless son in Ochre House Theater’s “Blood Hammer Girl.”
Trent Stephenson
News Roundups
They include busy local actors Lily Gast and Carson Wright, who bring considerable chops to the roles of a sick mother and her hapless son. Seen on opening night, the biggest revelation, however, was Cameron Wisener in the lead role of Tiffany, a village girl pining for a husband before she’s summoned to a darker calling that turns out to suit her just fine.
The clownish band is a highlight of “Blood Hammer Girl.”
Trent Stephenson
Wisener has previously worked behind the scenes at Ochre House as an understudy and prop and puppet builder. From the moment she opens her mouth for the opening number from the edge of the stage, inches away from the front row, her bright eyes and eager, confident delivery announce the arrival of a compelling stage presence.
Doing triple duty, Eric Talamantes and Ari Arinoff also make their first Ochre House appearances. They play, respectively, trumpet and saxophone in the four-piece backing band wedged into a corner of the tiny theater, portray a pair of clownish characters who flout the village’s draconian noise rules and then become the magistrates who punish violators behind oversize, placard-style masks.
They are joined in their goofily menacing high jinks by a wide-eyed Danielle Georgiou, who also toots the euphonium, a small tuba-like instrument, and plays The Stone, a mysterious associate of Aman (the quietly charismatic Michael Stimac), Tiffany’s concerned, sometimes confused father.
Adding guitar and piano to the musical mix, Gregg Prickett and Sarah Rogerson help create an eerie underscore when the action turns bloody.
The eclectic costume design by Ryan Matthieu Smith suggests Eastern Europe at the nexus of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: loosely fitting frocks and vests, layered and embroidered, and hats in myriad geometric shapes, including Tiffany’s signature white bonnet, its innocence hiding her deeper nature.
Adding to the atmosphere are six panels along the back and side walls painted by Izk Davies depicting scenes of village life.
In setting Blood Hammer Girl in an exotic, vague past, Locklear takes the audience back to a supposedly simpler time while sending up the human penchant for self-destruction in any era.
Cameron Wisener makes her Ochre House Theater stage debut in “Blood Hammer Girl.”
Trent Stephenson
Details
Blood Hammer Girl runs through March 7 at Ochre House Theater, 825 Exposition Ave. $12-$25. ochrehousetheater.org.
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