Before Elizabeth Kensek and Jessica Humphrey emerge from the shadows to perform Goblin Market in the tiny basement space at Theatre Three, almost everything on the heavily curtained set is wrapped or covered up. It’s a hint that a very old story is about to come out of mothballs.
Even so, there’s no way to be prepared for the mesmerizing way the Theatre Too black box transforms over the course of the next hour, the music, lighting and potentially anachronistic script vividly evoking a palpably distant era. With its choice of material and unmatched production values, the second oldest theater company in North Texas continues to surprise.
Based on an 1862 poem by English writer Christina Rossetti, this unusual chamber musical by Peggy Harmon and Polly Pen premiered off-Broadway 40 years ago. Both withstand the test of time not by being directly relevant today but with a haunting power that transcends the age of the source material, which the authors closely follow and the designers and actors in Theatre Three’s production beautifully bring to life.
Seen last Sunday afternoon, it’s the seemingly simple story of sisters tempted by goblin men selling fruit on the countryside glen just outside the siblings’ home. Laura (Humphrey) is all-in while Lizzie (Kensek) warns that they proceed with caution, despite their hunger for what’s on offer. It’s a dangerous game they’re playing.
The erotic metaphors run deep, peaking when the characters eventually sing about being drenched with the juices of a long list of fruits they’ve spent five or 10 minutes building up in a rhyming scheme early in the play. Lacking money, Laura buys the fruit with her tears and a lock of hair.
Clad in costume designer Christie Vela’s Victorian-era bloomers and occasionally more formal attire, Kensek and Humphrey perfectly deliver the operatic-style music of Pen’s compositions with subtle melodrama, displaying their characters’ see-sawing emotions on their faces and with their bodies. Their vocals are accompanied by music director Vonda K. Bowling’s sensitive piano work, accompanied by Kami Lujan on percussion and Molly Wang on cello.
First on stage, Kensek gradually unveils the set pieces, including a toppled rocking chair she lifts off the ground and sits in. She also relocates an architectural barrier — a kind of gate or fence — from the front of the stage, where it has partially blocked the audience’s view, to the middle. The audience learns late in the show that the story is being told as a flashback by the sisters, who have survived into a happy adulthood of marriage and children.
Lighting designer Caroline Hodge creates a moody atmosphere with mostly purple tones. Meanwhile, scenic designer Jeffrey Schmidt’s projections send ghostly shapes across the set’s surfaces. The picture is completed by Tilda Grace’s choreography, poetically moving the actors around the confined stage. James Chandler, who directs, brings all the elements together seamlessly.
Details
Through Dec. 7 at 2688 Laclede St. $37-$40. theatre3dallas.com.
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