Borden room: Eclipse Productions cuts to the chase with 'Lizzie'

It's not surprising that family values are an enduring issue of political and cultural resonance.  Even at

Ensemble: Bridget (from left), Emma, Alice, Lizzie

their gory worst, they are in part responsible for the pop-culture fascination with Lizzie Borden, who was acquitted of the 1892 murders of her socially prominent father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. What went on there for a long time before the reputed double parricide of Aug. 4, 1892? Speculation and sleuthing have been rife for 132 years.

The heroine of "Lizzie," a musical by Steven Cheslik-deMeyer and Alan Stevens Hewitt that's just opened at Phoenix Theatre, refers to herself as "the Yankee Clytemnestra" in one song. The link to ancient sources of violent death in the family amounts to a natural cultural archetype for this New England legend of enduring allure.

The creators of the musical take what's known to be true and exploit it, weaving in legendary elements, through reliance on a thundering punk-rock style, with songs often spit out like obscenities. Eclipse Productions, the alumni arm of Summer Stock Stage, puts its own stamp on "Lizzie" through Aug. 11. 

What are believed to be dark family secrets play out in various degrees of exposure in the course of the two-act show. A dysfunctional family story is decked out in goth makeup and wardrobe (credit Allison Jones); the facade of normal upper-middle-class life is stripped away immediately in "The House of Borden." Over the surrealistic architecture of the house set (designed by Abigail Warner), the lighting and videos designed by Gwendolynn Coffee and Zach Rosing play vividly as the fragmented story advances.

The often explicit songs run the gamut from angry and defiant to poignant and reflective. The latter end of

Mai Caslowitz sings as Alice, neighbor who knows too much.

the spectrum comes from Lizzie's observant neighborhood friend, Alice. Their relationship, later complicated by Alice's frank testimony at trial, is celebrated in the anxious love duet "Will You Stay?"

It's among the production's sensitively staged songs, as the four-member cast dashes about under Devan Mathias' illuminating direction. Microphones, on stands as well as wielded by the actors, are an important part of the dramatic presentation, as well as in Darian Wilson's choreography. They are props with an attitude.

Erin Lambertson is Lizzie; Cora Kendall is older sister Emma, shrewd, bitter, but not so much their father's victim. Lambertson's opening-night performance was etched in repressed anger and sorrow until her outburst as a self-liberated avenging angel near the end. Lizzie has been harmed in unspeakable ways by her father, and then there had come the news that the sisters' stepmother would be likely to receive all of Andrew Burden's legacy. Lizzie's course is clear, and no halfway measures will do. Emma, laying all her anxieties out after the deed, confronts her little sister in a song of repeated WTF shouts, the peak of Kendall's fiery performance.

All these songs bear character revelations, as do the variations on the saucy-maid stereotype handled by Samantha Ringor as the self-serving Irish immigrant servant Bridget (sometimes Maggie). Her singing seemed to raise the rafters in the hefty ensemble numbers — all balanced, if loud, and coordinated in spirit and mood with Todd Mack's sound design.

The off-stage band reinforces the ferocity and woundedness of the songs, in several places tenderly and searchingly accompanied by Taylor White, a cellist in the shadows. Music director Ben Rose also lends  his direct experience as a former tour guide at the Lizzie Borden House to the production (including some spine-tingling post-performance remarks from the stage on opening night).

[Credit: Zach Rosing]