Not Afraid Theatre Review

Anyone who mentions the poet Sylvia Plath and the word “oven” in the same sentence is generally not talking about her cooking skills. Thus it is with a pair of 20-something roommates struggling to find meaning in their lives in playwright Nora Sørena Casey’s disturbing dark comedy Not Afraid at Under St. Marks. Hunter (Anna Van Valin), a law student with an active social life and a plan for the future, seems to be the more grounded of the two. On the other hand, there is Bets (Taylor Shurte), who passes her days in self-confinement within the walls of their tiny Chicago apartment, blogging about death metal bands and the glories of communism. Their lives are in a delicate balance that is starting to come undone as Hunter discusses her plans for relocating to Cincinnati and a well-paying job at a law firm, while Bets is dealing with fears engendered by an anonymous online death threat. Hunter brushes off Bets’s agitated state as yet another of her friend’s dramatic overreactions, until the blood-smeared window and the dead squirrel convince her otherwise.