If at all possible never, never accept an invitation to visit Valerie (Linda Libby), the town butcher, or her daughter Midge (Wendy Waddell), the local pharmacist. Their kitchen's crowded countertop features a full knife block and an extremely menacing meat cleaver. Valerie seems to fondle the cleaver with way too much tender loving care. Note, too, that there may or may not have been several murders, suicides, or runaways in recent history.
Welcome to the environment of Marisa Wegrzyn's The Butcher of Baraboo, currently being presented by Moxie Theater performing at the Diversionary facility. The action takes place in the quiet community of Baraboo, Wisconsin. It is located about 40 miles northwest of Madison (near the Illinois border), with a population of just over 11,000. It is a typical small town in a farming community.
Gail (DeAnna Driscoll), Valerie's sister-in-law and local cop, is full of bluff and bluster and very little moxie (pun intended) about real police work. The interplay between her, Valerie, and Midge is amusing. Valerie's husband, Frank, has disappeared, and many think he has been killed in the woods outside of town.
These three total space cases, when put into a small space, will make you question your own sanity (as well as theirs) in just a few seconds. Valerie is just too in love with her cherished, commercial-sized cleaver. Midge distributes drugs outside of the pharmacy quite regularly. Gail seems to spend less time investigating crime than she does postulating about it and gabbing with Val and Midge. Watching the interplay of these three actors is as much fun as following the script.
Enter stage left Sevenly (Jennifer Eve Thorn), the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. Sevenly is the Mormon wife of Frank's brother Donal. Thrust into this Midwest maelstrom, poor Sevenly has an even more difficult time trying to cope with, let alone understand, just who these people are and how one relates to them.
Four women, all different, all with their own agendas, force tensions to escalate as the plot twists and turns to the pleasure of the audience. Playwright Wegrzyn, a native of the area, has a wonderful flare for the local language.
Directors Chelsea Whitmore and Delicia Turner Sonnenburg have captured the feel of the area as well as the texture of the accents dominating both Wisconsin and Minnesota. Their cast stays in dialect for most of the script.
Sevenly and Donal (Don Evans), her husband, live next door to Valerie and Midge and have a way of popping in unannounced. Every character seems to have secrets that they mete over the course of the play, one tidbit at a time. Also, why is there a gallon of blood in the fridge? What is the mother-daughter relationship about? Who is Midge selling drugs to? What is Sevenly hiding from her husband? Why does Midge seem to have a rather unusual interest in Sevenly? And why did the sweet, seemingly innocent Sevenly utter one of the most profane words in the English language?
The behind-the-scenes folks did an outstanding job. Amy Chini and Esther Emery have created a very homey set that's definitely Midwest. Jennifer Brawn-Gittings' costumes look like Wisconsin winter garb. Lighting by Ashley Jenks and sound by Matt Lescault-Wood put the finishing touches to a feeling of the Midwest. With their help, directors Chelsea Whitmore and Delicia Turner Sonnenberg give their audiences an authentic environment for some of the strangest folks you will meet this theater season. They all look so, so normal and then they start speaking.
