From left, Carley Cornelius, Katherine Michelle Tanner and Nicole Jeannine Smith in a scene from "The Drowning Girls" at Urbanite Theatre. CLIFF ROLES PHOTO/URBANITE
Entering the Urbanite Theatre for each new production is like starting an adventure. Because the seating arrangements are different for each show, you don’t know what you’re going to find once you pass through the small lobby into the intimate theater space.
For the season-closing production of “The Drowning Girls,” audiences walk into a darkened and foggy room with three clawfoot bathtubs filling the playing space and seating arranged in an L-shape around the stage. Soon, three women pass through a lacy curtain, stretch and submerge themselves backwards into tubs that are half-filled with water.
They are the Brides of the Bath, the moniker given to three women who married and were soon drowned by the same man seeking their life savings and inheritance between 1912 and 1914 in England.
From left, Carley Cornelius, Katherine Michelle Tanner and Nicole Jeannine Smith in a scene from "The Drowning Girls" at Urbanite Theatre. CLIFF ROLES PHOTO/URBANITE
The play by Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson and Daniela Vlaskalic creates a wonderful framework for director Brendan Ragan and his three-member cast to stage it in imaginative ways, which they do. As a result, they draw in the audience by the victims’ wants, needs and family pressures as we are reminded how women were treated as second-class and subservient to the men in their lives at the time.
In a poetic, almost choreographed style, Alice, Bessie and Margaret share a little about their lives, the desperation a couple of them felt to be married soon, and then a little about the husband.
The women are ghosts who almost frolic in and out of the tubs as they make you care about them. After only a few minutes, we fully understand the joy and excitement they felt when a man finally starts showing interest, and how they ignore warnings from friends or loved ones worried about the speed in which they agree to marry.
Nicole Jeannine Smith plays the first victim of a serial killer who married women and then drowned them in "The Drowning Girls" at Urbanite Theatre. CLIFF ROLES PHOTO/URBANITE THEATRE
Nicole Jeannine Smith as Bessie, the first victim, Carley Cornelius as Alice and Katherine Michelle Tanner as the last and oldest bride, the 38-year-old spinster Margaret, create a wonderful ensemble of distinct personalities. Each is warm and innocent, concerned about the others and making sure all their stories are told and understood. But there’s also a slight hardening that develops as the pace quickens and the focus shifts to the never-seen George Joseph Smith (he used different names for each marriage). He is apparently facing trial in an off-stage space, and they explain how he duped them and got them to sign over whatever they had.
The water and the tubs lend an ethereal quality to the production, enhanced by the lacey bridal outfits designed by Riley Leonhardt. The clothes frequently get wet but never become a burden to the actresses. Ryan Finzelber’s lighting gives off the look of moonlight reflected on rippling water, and Rew Tippin’s relatively simple set creates a period look and leaves plenty of room for the women to maneuver, even when they’re soaking wet.
Katherine Michelle Tanner plays Margaret, the last victim of a serial killer who preyed on women in England in the early 20th century in "The Drowning Girls" at Urbanite Theatre. CLIFF ROLES PHOTO/URBANITE THEATRE
It all comes off so naturally and the women seem so comfortable with the tubs and the water, that we’re free to focus on the stories and personalities and truly care about their experiences.
The theater has enjoyed significant success as it ends its first full season. Two performances on May 10 and 17 have been added to the run that continues through May 22.
THEATER REVIEW
“THE DROWNING GIRLS”
By Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson and Daniela Vlaskalic. Directed by Brendan Ragan. Reviewed April 27, Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second Street, Sarasota. Through May 22. Tickets are $24, $5 for students. 941-321-1397; urbanitetheatre.com
