Frozen

April 2019 

Frozen 

Lavery, Bryony. Frozen. 2004. Dramatists Play Service Inc. 

The essence of modern theatre is to give a voice to people who are unheard or unlistened too. If that voice is the goal of a play, Frozen is nothing short of a triumph. It fearlessly gives voice to the most marginalized and hated of society - a serial killer and child molester.  This takes-no-prisoners script looks a murderer and the mother of a victim square in the eye and reveals the very worst parts of the human condition. The mediator between these two extremes is a psychologist doing research on the serial killer, creating a case for why such villains may actually be victims in their own right. 

Without justifying the heinous evil committed by the killer, the play does cause us to examine the roots of evil and leaves us with the question of how to respond. The mother in the play quite literally gets the revenge she wanted only when she forgives the killer. 

The giant themes of good and evil, life and death, mental illness and intelligence are all addressed in this challenging but redemptive script, making it a fearless and important work in our modern time.