Interactive play 'Heresy' makes its return

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Chris Garre and Ben Lukey interrogate Danel Verdugo in Cruel Theatre's "Heresy," which is being staged at the Church of the Crossroads beginning Thursday. 'Heresy' 8 p.m. Thursday; repeating April 12, 18, 19 Church of the Crossroads, 1212 University Ave. $12 general, $7 students 523-1004 Reservations are encouraged. Seating and role assignments begin at 7:30 p.m.

"But there were complications with that, so now we're doing it at a church instead," said Kinoshita, still excited, but a bit disappointed by the production's new "village meeting hall" location in a University Avenue church auditorium.

"It's another good environment, but on a different level. Being out there in the dark would have lent a historical realism and this great feeling of not being in the modern. The church has a fire extinguisher and a tiled floor."

Kinoshita's production — a redux of Cruel Theatre's last "Heresy" staging in 1999 — should be an interesting one just the same.

"Heresy" follows 3-year-old Cruel Theatre's interactive modus operandi of enlisting audience members for the roles of predetermined, though largely improvisational, characters.

And as with other Cruel productions, the real fun of attending will be checking egos at the door and assuming new ones.

"For example, you might be Paul Perkinson with a farm and crops that have been failing for two years, and you believe witches are responsible," said Kinoshita. "You could be the jailer, the town leader, a priest, a tavern owner. The whole show, actually, is very much predicated on the fact that everybody believed in these witches."

Using a loose story structure in lieu of a set script, audience members will determine the fate of the accused while trying to avoid being pegged as witches themselves.

Kinoshita — who drowned herself and her six-member "permanent" cast in historical lectures and volumes of witchcraft text — also assured she would do what she could to lend her Church of the Crossroads environs some much needed old-English realism. Lit by candles, the church will be filled with the scent of lavender, musk and rosemary — according to Kinoshita, popular house scents of the time. Sachets of herbs — once believed to ward off witchcraft — will also be handed out along with a costume piece to help audience members get into character.

"I even found a recipe from the 16th century for rosewater muffins that I'm going to be serving," said Kinoshita.