Phillyist Reviews... Psalms of a Questionable Nature

I'm afraid I'm doing Nice People Theatre Co. a terrible disservice by only now posting this review. After all, I saw Psalms of a Questionable Nature almost a month ago. It closed November 9. But if nothing else, I hope that this review will be a testament to the consistently solid work that NPTC does.

The really great thing about NPTC—probably the best thing about NPTC—is how well they cast their shows. They're a small company, formed by close friends, and so one gets the feeling that they cast from a pool of actors with whom they're familiar, and whose talents they know how to work with. Psalms was another successfully-cast show, albeit the one with NPTC's smallest cast to date. Featuring only two actresses, Janice Rowland and Rachael Joffred, Psalms is a tense, tight, claustrophobic play, part family drama and part psychological thriller. The two actresses portray stepsisters who only meet each other after their parents' untimely and slightly mysterious deaths, and from the superficial bonding to the rather shocking denouncement, we never leave the basement of their late parents' home.

Director Pirronne Yousefzadeh handled the constraints of Marisa Wegrzyn's script well, aided greatly by the excellent set designed by Caitlin Lainoff, who really transformed the Walnut's fifth-floor blackbox theatre into a mysterious basement. The only fault I could find with the show was its ending: not the way it was directed or acted, but simply the way it was scripted. The play just... ends. It was so unsatisfying after the high, almost Hitchcockian drama we'd had until the last few moments. If anything, it felt like the close to an act, that we'd pick up after intermission, but that wasn't the case.

Despite this (rather large) obstacle, I should repeat that the play was excellently performed, especially on the part of Joffred, who handled the difficult role of the kooky, and perhaps slightly slow, Moo with aplomb. (She gave me goosebumps, really.)

As I mentioned, the run of Psalms is long over, but I strongly encourage you to check out NPTC's spring show, an original, to-be-named work by the writers responsible for NPTC's successful Have a Nice Life. Nice People Theatre is one of the most reliable companies in the city and deserves more than a month-late review: they deserve to have you in the audience.

Photo from the Nice People Theatre website.