Review of Step Up Productions' Dead Accounts at The Den Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Dead Accounts. It was by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Jason Gerace. It was about a man who loved Graeter's ice cream named Jack (Steve O'Connell) and he had come back home to his parents' house in Ohio because he's having trouble back in New York. He wasn't welcomed home with open arms by his sister Lorna (Emily Tate) because he had bought a little (actually a LOT) too much of ice cream. Food can help you feel better about yourself, but it can also make you feel worse. And he needs to feel better about himself because he did something bad, but I won't give it away. You have to go and see the show! This is not just a play about food; it is about mixed feelings, childhood, and money. People should definitely go see this show. I had so much fun because it had a lot of puzzles and it is fun to play with the ideas.

The show started out with a scene between Lorna and Jack. This was when Jack had just arrived and she was super mad. But he didn't want her to be mad so he started to try to make her feel better with ice cream. But she was on a diet. Jack thinks about food as something that can make him feel at home and like he is not a bad person and like he is back being a kid like when he lived back in Ohio. Lorna thinks that ice cream is something that will make you feel that you wish you had never done that because then you'll be fat. But I think that she is sort of a cynic for that. She worries too much about what she looks like. But we shouldn't just stuff our faces; we should eat when we want to eat or feel like we should eat. And you also can have too much money. If you have just enough money that people won't think you are rich or poor, people will leave you alone. Lorna sees the world as a place to try to be a better person, even if that makes you sad, and Jack sees it as a place where you can eat and have fun and spend money a lot. Nobody really has the best of lives in this play, so the audience has to puzzle out what is the best part of each person's life.

The relationship between Lorna and Jack's friend Phil (Bradford R. Lund) was basically that Phil had asked Lorna on a date in high school but then never asked her out again. So she thought she'd done something wrong, but he was just scared that he'd done something wrong. When two people want to be together but both of them think they've done something wrong to the relationship, that is not a good thing. Jack and Jenny (Elizabeth Antonucci) also have a messed up relationship but not in the same way because Jack and Jenny don't think that they did something wrong. They think that each other did something wrong. I don't feel the same about both relationships. I think Jack and Jenny should get a divorce, but I think the other two should start dating because they actually haven't done anything wrong. Phil and Lorna's relationship is a kind of a puzzle because you have to assemble it just right for them to be able to get together.

There is a funny scene where Jenny was on the phone with her lawyer/boyfriend. And she is telling him all about the bad things in the house like how they have weird silverware and mounted plates up on the wall. And then the mom Barbara (Millie Hurley) walks in and Jenny doesn't see her. Barbara stands there in the doorway for a long time. It was funny because of the mother's expression when Jenny was talking about the plates. And Jenny is finally done talking and then the mom starts to rant about how those are beautiful plates and stuff like that. Jenny is being mean about the stuff in the house because they don't live in a giant mansion with a giant garage and a beautiful garden with fountains like she does. But they have made their own little place where they feel comforted. Barbara likes her own house because it makes her happy and she thinks it is beautiful. And outside in their yard where the trees are planted is where they always like to be because it reminds them of when they planted those trees in their childhood. And also the mom knows that Jenny doesn't value her mansion more than they value their little house.

People who would like this show are people who like puzzles, surprises, and ice cream. I had a lot of fun at this show and I think that it was a great experience to have because I had never seen a play like this before. It was so great. It makes you think about morality, relationships, and dairy. I think people should definitely go and see it!

Photos: Michael Brosilow