Feejee Mermaid
Written by Clay McLeod Chapman
Directed by Pete Boisvert
Presented by Drops in the Vase at The Flea
20 Thomas St, New York, NY 10007
October 19-November 2, 2024
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| Morgan Zipf-Meister & Niccolò Walsh. Photo by Kent Meister |
Under the auspices of the eve of the 19th Annual International Taxidermy Championships, Clay McLeod Chapman's new play,
Feejee Mermaid, renders a Milwaukee hotel room a liquor-fueled crucible, taking the audience on an unlikely journey into the dark heart of competition, creativity, violence and taboo.
Feejee Mermaid is a rare work, a resounding success: as poignant as it is funny, as heartfelt as it is unflinchingly brutal.
The action is centered around one night in this hotel room, with the full weight of the previous year’s competition, and the interpersonal consequences therein, fueling the tension-soaked 75 minutes to come. The play opens in the hotel room, rendered perfectly anodyne and anonymous (emanating the essence of what is means to be on the road and make mistakes in rooms that aren’t your own), save the two massive taxidermized rabbits (or are they jackalopes, as Griffin [Adam Files] teases?) positioned on an ottoman. “Love Hurts” plays as the action begins. And by the end of the night, we will come to know that indeed it does, and quite a bit more. As the hotel room takes on in turn the form of a conference room stage and a taxidermy studio, it always, painfully, reverts back to the crucible that is the night’s proving ground.
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| Morgan Zipf-Meister, Adam Files, Duane Ferguson, & Niccolò Walsh. Photo by Kent Meister |
Clay McLeod Chapman’s script is marvel of emotional highs and lows. The audience receives a crash course on the finer points of taxidermy as well as the marking and mating practices of rabbits, interspersed with sharp jokes and probing questions about what it means to create, what it means to chase and capture the “spark of life.”
Director Pete Boisvert handles the script and the cast masterfully. In particular, the intimate moments, of rage and of affection, are handled with aplomb, beautifully blocked, leaving the audience enthralled, captivated, and, ultimately, by the time this is all over, breathless.
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| Adam Files, Morgan Zipf-Meister & Niccolò Walsh. Photo by Kent Meister |
Excellent performances abound. Four characters fill the hotel room, each a mast of their trade in their own right. Most striking is Morgan Zipf-Meister’s Lisette. Zipf-Meister manages to simultaneously project deep vulnerability and profound strength, serving as the hub around which the action revolves. Her searching and knowing eyes shine a light on everyone on and off the stage. Adam Files plays Griffin, corporate sponsor of this festival of stuffed and grafted wonders. Files is explosive, playing the violent alpha with bravado and a dangerous sense of urgency. His protegee, Lyman, is played by a bespectacled Niccolò Walsh. His performance is thoughtful, vulnerable, and deeply sympathetic. PT – our P.T. Barnum-inflected adept – is played by Duanne Ferguson. Labeled “Frankenstein” by his colleagues, PT is a visionary – a dangerous, bombastic, creative force, masterfully captured by Ferguson, replete with gravitas, commanding the stage. Again, it is perhaps Zipf-Meister’s dynamic with each of the other three which sets the acting apart. These dyadic encounters range from the pitiable (such as with the near-jilted Lyman) to the sincere (with a now-vulnerable PT) to the vitriolic (confronting the seemingly potent Griffin). Each of these shines, with Zipf-Meister bringing something, perhaps that elusive spark that all creators are indeed in search of, out of each of the players.
Together, these sparks undeniably catch fire.
Feejee Mermaid is a dark, funny, and legitimately haunting offering for this Halloween season.
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