Thursday, July 18th, 2013

Lilith, Adam's first wife, refuses to lie beneath and be obedient to Adam. Wanting her independence Lilith flees the Garden of Eden. God finds her in a cave bearing children. She refuses to return to Eden, and her punishment is the death of her children at God's hands.

For better or worse, for some women the punishment is the birth of their children. This is the case with Molly (Emily Meier) in Slain in the Spirit.

Molly is a typical Texas Christian woman. She loves and is obedient to her husband, Danny (Josh Alscher); and they both want many children to raise as well-behaved, obedient, God (and parent) - fearing Christians. Molly's and Danny's prayers are answered and over the next six years they have five children – four boys and then one girl. However, immediately after the delivery of the first child, Matthew (Tommy Buck), Molly is struck, as if by the hand of God, with postpartum psychosis. Matthew's cries and moans, and even his coos, are monstrous to her. The sounds of demons and wild things.

Over the next six years there are: more babies, home-schooling, two suicide attempts, demands from her husband and church for Molly's and the children's obedience and perfection, therapists, psycho-pharmaceuticals, Bible study led by Loretta (Kathleen Goldpaugh) who guility lusts after Molly, a fundamentalist pastor (Spencer Aste) who preaches living a spartan life and that children are particularly susceptible to the devil, mental institutions, night terrors, maddening visual and auditory hallucinations, all ending in filicide - the murder of all five children by Molly's own hands - slowly, deliberately, drowning each child one by one in the bathtub.

Who is to blame? Molly of course. But what is to blame is a more difficult question to answer. Slain in the Spirit wisely does not answer the question what is to blame, but shows us creatively, brilliantly and hauntingly all the many culprits; religious fundamentalism, believing in Satan, ill effects of psycho-pharmaceuticals, sub-standard mental health professionals, low self-esteem, literal and convenient scripture interpretation, and the unquestioned belief and faith in the truth and righteousness of traditional male/female roles.

To me it is this last culprit, the automatic acceptance of the traditional female/wife/mother role that is to blame for Molly's ability to kill her children. Molly is an innocent. A young woman to whom it never would occur to not have children, to not believe in God and Satan, to not comply with her husbands choices, to not blame herself for everything. Molly and Danny live completely unexamined lives. They did not have children because they thought about how rewarding, fun, heart wrenching and exhausting it would be. They have children because that is what one does; and when one does, it is the mother who must provide the care – no matter what. Come hell or high bathtub water Molly must keep having children, even after her fall into postpartum psychosis, and she must be their caregiver regardless of the harm it does to them and her. And not because Danny is tyrannical or unloving or makes her have children against her will, but because they both know no other way.

So, it is the assumption of patriarchy that is to blame for the death of five innocent children and the ruination of their parents. 

Slain in the Spirit is masterfully acted and imaginatively staged. Run to see it. It will make you think.

Slain in the Spirit, Written and Directed by Lisa Milinazzo, with additional scene development by Katie Currie and David Nash

Cast: Josh Alscher (Danny), Spencer Aste (Pastor Lloyd Rawneck), Tommy Buck (Doctor, Matthew, FBI Man 2, Angel/Demon), Katie Curri (Debbie Green), Clemmie Evans (Rebecca, Nurse 1, Angel/Demon), Kathleen Goldpaugh (Loretta), Andrew Lemonier (Ginger, Psych Doctor, FBI Man 1, Timothy, Angel/Demon), Emily Meier (Molly), Amina Omagbemi (Carole, Nurse 2, Mary, Angel/Demon), Catriona Rubenis-Stevens (Simon, Angel/Demon)

Produced by Catriona Rubenis-Stevens; Producing Consultant, Lili du Toit; Set Design/Mask Design by Jane Stein; Lighting Design by Jeff Nash; Original Music Composed and Performed by Mimi Goese and Ben Neill; Stage Manager, Maria Smith; Sound Design and Assistant Stage Manager, Gerome Samante; PR and Publicity, Andrea Alton

Official Selection 14th Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival, Presented at the Workshop Theatre Mainstage, 312 W. 36th St; Remaining Showtimes: Thursday, July 25, 6:00 pm; Friday, July 26, 8:00 pm; Tuesday July 30, 6:00 pm; Saturday August 3, 3:30 pm; Running time: 90 minutes;

Tickets and Information: (866) 811-4111, www.midtownfestival.org