Pgraph Dabbles in Villainy

Yet for all the peasants he plugged with flaming loaves of bread (two, played by Janik among Coldtowne’s back-row couches), and for all the body parts he chopped off a prostitute (two, the tongue and ring finger of Kaci Beeler’s Galloping Guinevere), Harold wasn’t allowed to slip into the realm of Complete Evil. Badr made a strong choice in showing Harold as a doting father to Beeler's Princess Madeline, while Valerie Ward, as peasant girl Janice, endowed him with the habit of delivering flowers to the elderly women of the village.

The human depravity of the story’s protagonist served to heighten its moments of humor, hence the maximum yuks at Madeline’s line upon finding the dead bodies of her father and Lord Mormont: “The king is dead! And … another man!” Badr, Beeler, Janik and Ward remained playful in the face of Villainy, riffing on mispronunciations (“Banish-ed!”) and utilizing the environment outside the stage, like when Janik, as the victim of a thrown knife, stumbled backwards and through and out the theater’s exit door. Still, it's a testament to their commitment to the craft and and their comfort on stage that they managed to sustain a rapt audience through laugh-free periods.

You know, like good theater tends to do. Villainy runs Thursdays in June at Coldtowne Theater, and focuses on a new, never-before-seen rogue each week!