Artattack's Criminal Hearts Breaks In New Home
Ata and Bo.
Artattack Theatre Ensemble has been producing work since 2001, but it's only now that they've finally secured a permanent home: the VoxBox, a little 30-seat theatre at 12th & Pike. Officially, their first performance in their new home was Embarrassed in May, a show featuring company members recounting the most humiliating moments of their lives. But Embarrassed, the first in a planned series of "true-life stories," was a fairly simple, fund-raising production. With Criminal Hearts, opening this weekend (tix $10-$14; see below), the company returns to their roots with the character-driven, serio-comic story of an agoraphobic struggling with a vindictive ex-husband and a deeply disappointed burglar.
Earlier this week, we swung by the VoxBox in the afternoon to chat with Andrea Nelson, a core company member currently juggling publicity with her lead role in Criminal Hearts, with a few choice comments from director Liz Moisan, who was busily helping finish the lighting arrangement.
"This space is actually driving a lot of what we do now. What we do now is smaller cast shows...single-location, small-cast shows," explained Nelson." We crafted this season around the ensemble."
Criminal Hearts, by the mysterious maybe-person Jane Martin, centers on the story of Ata (played by Nelson), an agoraphobic trapped in an empty apartment, cleaned out by her ex-husband as a form of petty revenge. Bo, a female burglar, had cased the place a few weeks before, and breaks in only discover an empty flat and a half-human woman who's been living off Dominos Pizza and Dr. Pepper.
"The description from the playwright of the set specifically dictates that it should feel very claustrophobic," Nelson says with a grin, gesturing around the intimate space. The VoxBox, a below-street-level space reached by going down a long, sloped delivery ramp, is actually a perfectly pleasant place. The company has put a lot of effort into making the space comfortable and functional.
"When we were crafting the season we were talking a lot about what lens we wanted to frame it through, and the biggest thing we talked about was that we wanted the people central, the characters central, the human experience to be the biggest piece of that," explained Nelson. "And this space also really drives that because we're right here"--she gestures to the front row of seats, mere feet from the main playing space--"with the audience, and we're bringing them in, and by nature they're connected to us, so we wanted to do pieces they were drawn in to."
The intimate nature of the space has allowed the actors to approach the play with an almost filmic approach. Actors can be quiet rather than loud, and move more naturally than on a more traditional proscenium stage, even turning their backs to the audience.
"It was an actor habit to break," director Moisan said. "Everybody kind of automatically never wants to have their back turned at all, and I'm like, 'No, you can do that here for a little bit, they're not going to lose anything.'"
Although the cast includes two male roles, Criminal Hearts is really the story of two seemingly different women who share a deep similarity. As Ata and Bo's night-long stand-off progresses, the two discover their similarities and ultimately Ata finds freedom by joining Bo's criminal team.
"It's really a friendship piece," Nelson admits.
A special note: this weekend, Artattack is offering a "Block Party" special for the sort of people who'd prefer to spend their time is a nice cool theatre rather than a few blocks away packed in like sheep with a few thousand of the closest friends they never knew they had. Tickets are only $10, either at the door or online; for online ticket sales, the code is "BLOCK."
