https://www.lct.org/shows/daphne/

Sometimes I think a play (or film, or book, etc) that doesn't quite achieve all it sets out to can leave me more thoughtful than one that does. I've said many times that I find it harder to talk about media when I completely love it, though I've been trying to get better about that. In this case, though, I immediately started pulling up reviews on my phone the moment I walked out of the Claire Tow Theater, which is not usually an urge I get when I've been totally swept away.

Still, I didn't completely agree with a single review I read, so here I am trying to unpack my own thoughts.

The basics: Daphne has moved into a very creepy very isolated house in the woods with her new girlfriend Winona. The one-act play is set entirely in this house, which Winona does not like Daphne to leave and does not want her bringing in guests to (especially not the nearest neighbor, who she claims is a witch). A cut on Daphne's finger begins to grow bark, cabinets open and shut and Winona has a strange pet underneath a sheet by the door who occasionally rattles what sounds like a cage until Winona feeds it. Winona says it's a bird named Phoebus, and that if anyone lifts the sheet it will scream.

I went in expecting experimental horror with mythological themes, and that is basically what I got. However, I do agree with the basic gist of most of the reviews: too many questions were left unanswered, and there's at least one major scene I very much felt needed a real conclusion. What I don't agree on is that nothing was answered or that everything had to be spelled out with zero ambiguity.

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