Rating: B-
Dir: Ezekiel Decker
Star: Jessica Dawn Willis, Matthew Tompkins, Phil Harrison, April Hartman
“That was… interesting.” Long experience has taught me, that is Chris’s go-to phrase when she doesn’t quite know what to make of a movie. I’m inclined to agree with her, both on the literal and sub-text levels of her comment. But I also get the feeling this is a film which might stick around, quietly, in the back of my brain. Whitney Bennett (Willis) is a struggling New York actress – both in terms of her career and her mental health, though she does live with a boyfriend who cares for her. But she catches a break when she earns a leading role in a previously unpublished play, directed by the intense Terrence Durrand (Tompkins).
Immediately, alarm bells start ringing for the audience, based on Terrence’s unusual questions and demands. Whitney and the rest of the cast will be living together for two months during the rehearsal process. All copies of the script will be destroyed after the single performance. The play’s author committed suicide. A previous attempt to stage it ended disastrously. None of which fazes Whitney, such is her laser focus on seizing the opportunity with which she has been presented. Yet even she can no longer remain oblivious as opening night approaches, as the line between the play’s plot and reality seem to blur. Since the story is about a father sacrificing his daughter to the Greek gods, and Whitney is playing the daughter… Yeah.
You’ll be forgiven if your state for a good chunk of this is one of mild to moderate confusion, since straightforward, linear coherence is not of interest to Decker. Right from the start, we get scenes whose relevance becomes significant only later: the author’s suicide, and Whitney’s audition performance, from another “cursed” work, Shakespeare’s Macbe… ah, “the Scottish play” [one with which I am painfully familiar. The town I grew up in gets name-checked by Will in it, so we did it every damn year in school] There’s a recurring motif of a glass on a table, which strikes terror into Whitney, for reasons that are unclear at best. Another actress quits, only to be replaced by… herself? Her twin sister? A repeated line from Macbeth: “The bell invites me.” You don’t so much watch this, as hold on for the ride.
On that basis, it’s difficult to assign a grade. This could potentially all fall apart on a repeat viewing. Or it could resonate more, since you know where it’s going. I will say, there is an unevenness, not in tone but execution. Especially considering the limited resources (it’s half a dozen people in a theatre for 95% of the time), some scenes are genuinely creepy or enthralling, Others are neither. However, your mileage may vary with regard to which fall into each category. I sense those more deeply embedded in the arts world could take more away from this, since it delves into artistic motivations and ambitious drive that I don’t possess. However, on the basis of this, I’m perfectly fine without them.
The Woman Under the Stage is available to rent now, on Prime Video and Vudu. A DVD release is planner for later in the year.