She is joined by an excellent cast including David Stanbra who, earlier this year, delivered such a powerful performance as real-life cold-blooded murderer Richard Loeb in Diversionary’s gripping Never the Sinner. I’m not sure if he wants to be typecast as a remorseless murderer, but he certainly is remarkable in the role, both times feeling the deep embarrassment and regret not over the murder, but in his mother’s reaction to it. David’s performance when his mother finally admonishes him is superb. Though not as fully explored in the play, Wm. Todd Tressler as the father delivers a terrific performance as well while he blames himself and vainly tries to comfort his wife. And providing some brief but welcome comic relief is Laura Lee Juliano as a young girl from the sticks who develops an awful bad crush on her jailed hero who defied society so boldly.

Tremendous lighting and sound effects add much to the drama. David Lee Cuthbert’s sometimes dramatic, sometimes subtle lighting heightens the feel of isolation and despair felt especially by the mother, and his use of slowly and choppily rotating blinds that grow larger and smaller during Donald’s incarceration adds to the sense of nightmarish insanity. Paul Peterson’s sound effects include a screeching-like music/noise that embellishes that nightmarish insanity, some lighter elevator music (The Girl from Ipanema) that has also been accused of causing insanity in large enough doses, and finally the loud, echoing, ominous knock of the mother’s hand on her son’s always-closed bedroom door. Had she gone into his private sanctuary instead of knocking, could this have all been avoided? A horrible question for which she will never know the answer.