Birch House’s ‘Cursed’ is a Blessing for Our ‘American Tragedy’ (Review)
The Chicago-based company’s latest tells a history that is as much ours as it is its characters
I think it is important for any critic to be frank about their biases. In my case, I am an anxiously-avid anti audience-participation theatre-goer. However, I brought this baggage with me to see Birch House’s Cursed: An American Tragedy at Chicago’s Berger Park North Mansion on Halloween night.
Birch House first premiered Cursed as a workshop at The Foxhole in 2017, and has now endeavored to mount the piece as a full-scale production; the scale of which is quite full.
Fifteen actors carry the piece throughout almost every square inch of the historic Mansion’s two floors. The script (a tremendous accomplishment composed by the company’s Curator of Immersive Experiences Lauren N. Fields and Immersive Creator Janie Killips) tells the story of one family over a timeline that stretches from the Civil War to World War II and how mistakes made in the past continue to haunt their bloodline.
The audience enters the playing space in a haze both literal and figurative (some powerful fog machines do their work to haunt-up the space). “You’ve come to see the house,” William (played confidently by Gary Henderson) welcomes us. From the start, we are unsure of exactly what this means. As the audience stands in the foyer awaiting action, there was the typical awkwardness of anticipation that prefaces any immersive experience. What is this going to be? Do I talk? Do I smile? Am I standing weird? Is this how I usually stand? Why am I standing like this? Then, with a snap, the play begins and all unsure expectations are answered.
I was immediately pulled into the story (literally pulled…by an actor’s hand). I was lucky that hand belonged to Anna Connelly, whose compelling Grace was the perfect path for this audience member to begin with. The character, a Wilson-era suffragette suffering beneath both government and motherly suppression, was my favorite storyline throughout. I could have stayed in that first scene and followed that track for the full 90 minutes, but I allowed myself to be pulled again (this time by Eric Richardson’s haunting original music).
The music drew me out into the hall, and back over 50 years to a Civil War era scene beautifully played between Isabella Coelho’s Mary and Eddie Lynch’s Josiah. The scene; a dialogue-less dance, made clear that Cursed would not just give the audience multiple stories interwoven, but give multiple forms of storytelling through which to engage with those stories. In addition to scenework and dance, there are narratives communicated through projection, lighting, and most effectively through the physical space itself (designed in detail by Janie Killips and assistant Matthew T. Messina).
I could give a play-by-play of my path through to the end of the production and it wouldn’t spoil anyone’s experience, because everyone’s journey will be different. At times those experiences will be intimate; one audience member with one actor. At other times, the entire audience and cast will miraculously (through careful curation by director Lauren N. Fields) find themselves all back in the same room together.
The overall effect is that of walking through a Wikipedia wormhole where women’s stories take the foreground and the histories of men are buried beneath their powerful performances. This is not to say the male performances are inferior, but their stories are spotlighted elsewhere. The women of this family bear the weight of mistakes made by men driven by war generation after generation. We watch the people cursed with living out the consequences of others’ actions; not always driving the narrative of history, but living through it.
Cursed is a choose-your-own-adventure not unlike the way we engage with the world. We live in a dominantly-digital age where mouse clicks rather than footsteps can lead us down a particular path. It’s easy to be desensitized from the choices made to access information, but there is choice in which articles we read, choice in which sources we pull our news from, and choice in which accounts we follow.
While the world can feel like a curse we are living through, we often forget the power of our own everyday choices to drive a different narrative of history. Immersive experiences like Cursed are an important reminder and physicalization of our free will in following and participating in the stories around us. Do yourself a favor and come out to witness these stories for yourself.
My recommendation: bring a friend, bring two, and then leave them in the foyer. Cursed is a show you’ll want to walk into with a companion to ease you into the experience, but a show you’ll soon want to navigate alone to find your own way through this play and through this world.
Cursed: An American Tragedy opened Thursday, November 1st and runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through the 17th, each night at 7pm.
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