Matchstick at the GCTC. A gripping, disquieting drama
Photo: Electric Umbrella Images
You may realize earlier or later than your seatmate what is really going on here, but exactly when the penny drops doesn’t matter. What does matter is the intake of breath, the muttered imprecation when you suddenly understand that Matchstick, an odd and intensely original folk musical that starts out in fairy tale-like fashion, is becoming bigger and darker than you ever anticipated. The fairy tale is morphing into real life, and it’s not life as you’d choose to have it.
Playwright Nathan Howe’s story begins in An Undesirable Country where a young, motherless girl named Matchstick (Lauren Holfeuer) is locked out of her home by a cruel father. In Grimm Brothers style, she journeys to a big, soulless city. There, she’s taken in by an aunt (seen only in a photograph that Holfeuer holds aloft while speaking the aunt’s lines) and her reluctant husband (Howe, in one of multiple roles).