Enjoyable ensemble performance makes “Witch” wholly worthwhile

Have you been feeling like all is lost? Think our capitalistic reality is so far gone that maybe the only way out is to burn it all to the ground and start again? 

If so, the Garage Theatre has a play for you. Starting off as a tale of how life in a rural olde towne is disrupted when the devil comes ‘round looking to buy some souls, ultimately Jen Silverman’s Witch is a meditation on how reducing life to the transactional has sent our world to hell in a handbasket. 

But as timely as the theme may be, the reason to come is the cast, who make absolutely every scene watchable even when the script comes up a bit short.

Like every Christopher Nolan screenplay this side of Dunkirk, Silverman’s Witch is best enjoyed without analyzing it too deeply. For some reason Scratch, our demon-about-town (Rory Cowan), doesn’t seem to know whether he’s the devil or simply a “junior colleague.” And despite the play’s title, Elizabeth’s (Colette Rutherford) being thought of as a witch by the gossipy townsfolk is barely a plot point. And ultimately the main action, which concerns whether wealthy Sir Arthur (a properly orotund Paul Knox) will choose his effeminate son Cuddy (Bobby Zelsdorf, who earned the biggest laughs) or the manlier foster Frank (Rob Young, getting some big laughs of his own) as heir, is largely irrelevant to Silverman’s fuzzy mediation on whether there’s any hope of extricating ourselves from the growth spiral of a capitalism that is choking the life from us.

But even if the script can’t quite win on points, Silverman does provide enough intelligence, pathos, and humor (chock full of intentional anachronisms so there’s no mistaking that this is a play about today despite being set in colonial times) to give the cast a fighting chance — and they win by a knockout. Co-directors Alexandria McGinness and Eric Hamme couldn’t have cast the show any better, with every actor holding his/her own when they’re doing little and finding the most of their big moments — including several that come from the Garage rather than Silverman. It’s not the writing that holds your interest from start to finish, but the presentation.

A few minor shortcomings keep that presentation from verging on a perfect score. Technically, opening night was rough, with maybe half the lighting cues fractionally off and a few sound cues coming as much as 10 seconds too late, forcing the actors to talk over music that simply would not yield. But while we can expect that aspect to improve as the run wears on, McGinness & Hamme come up with effective scene changes. Yeah, we can suspend our disbelief, but some do hurt the momentum — especially since otherwise the pacing is perfect. 

The worst thing about this show, though, is the seating. A great charm of seeing plays at the Garage is the creativity they display time and again in reconfiguring — sometimes totally — their black-box space so as to maximize the viewing experience to serve the needs of whatever particular work they’re staging. But for once this talent has failed them, as a dearth of risers means that unless you’re well over six feet tall, choose the wrong seat and your view will be obscured by the heads in front of you.

So if you’re going to this one, show up early and plant yourself in the front row. Then you’ll be in the best position to appreciate a set of truly enjoyable performances. 

Witch at the Garage Theatre
Times: Thursday–Saturday 8:00 p.m.
The show runs through August 9.
Cost: $23–$28 (Thursdays 2-for-1); closing night w/afterparty: $40
Details: thegaragetheatre.org
Venue: The Garage Theatre, 251 E. 7th St., Long Beach