Cascade’s Fire
Music by Kyle Wernke, Book & Lyrics by Taylor Gruenloh
Directed by Taylor Gruenloh
Tesseract Theatre Company
July 19, 2024
Josie Schnelten
Image: Tesseract Theatre
The second entry in the Tesseract Theatre Company’s New Musical Summer Fest 2024 is much more obviously a work-in-progress. Cascade’s Fire is subtitled “A Modern Antigone” story, and it has an intriguing concept, but the structure and presentation could use a lot of work. With a nod to its Greek tragedy origins, this show gets a bit too mired in “concept” to be a completely coherent story, although the cast is giving their all and there are some interesting ideas here.
The story is told in a sort of artificially detached manner by a two-person “Greek Chorus” (Brittney Roberson, Chris Melton) that come across more as lecturers/narrators than commentators on the action. In fact, there isn’t a lot of action–the audience is told what happens more than they are shown, especially at the beginning, in which the inciting incident that makes focused young university student Cascade (Josie Schnelten) leave school and disappear for three years is told in a somewhat clinical way by the chorus. Then, Cascade is occasionally talked about, but the story shifts to Trinity (Kampbell Hemeyer), Cascade’s former girlfriend, who is distraught and takes a drastic action, which eventually brings Cascade back to campus. Meanwhile, we also meet Robbie (Jordan Ray Duncan), who was romantically involved with both Cascade and Trinity; Luke (Luke Geockner), the ruthless mastermind of a horrible, exploitative “business”; and Olivia (Ella Penico), Luke’s dominated, exploited girlfriend. There’s also Dylan (David Pisoni), Olivia’s friend who is trying to find out the truth about the disappearance of several girls on campus, as well as what drove Trinity to her final action.
If this plot all sounds a bit cluttered, that’s because it is. Even though the show is called Cascade’s Fire, Cascade herself doesn’t figure a lot into the story except at the beginning and the end. This isn’t necessarily a problem, since this show is inspired by the Greek tragedy Antigone, which turns out to be a lot more about Antigone’s uncle, King Creon, than Antigone herself, and in which Antigone is resolute about what she’s going to do from the beginning, and never relents. Cascade in this story echoes Antigone in that way, but there’s a lack of focus in the various subplots to the point where we almost have to be reminded that Cascade still exists, until the end, in which the passions ramp up and the story finally starts coming across more as a play than an lecture or academic exercise. The rest of the characters are not given enough development to invest in too much, with the most dominant players being the chorus, who keep showing up to remind us that this play is a tragedy, as if the show itself isn’t able to communicate that fact.
As for the cast, everyone is trying their best, led by Schelten’s fiercely determined Cascade. The singing is hit-or-miss, and the songs aren’t especially memorable. Also, despite the fact that several of the characters are romantically involved with one another at various moments in the story, there is no real chemistry between the performers in this way.
Production-wise, the set by Taylor Gruenloh and David Pisoni is simple and effective, and Matt Stuckel’s lighting is somewhat static and stark. The sound isn’t especially consistent, and especially during the songs, it can be difficult to understand the words. There’s a somewhat rough, unpolished look and feel about the staging, somewhat like a school drama project in its early stages.
There are some good ideas here, and important issues being brought up, although everything is still quite rough and coldly academic. Still, the performers are invested and this is obviously a work in progress. Cascade’s Fire could use a little more fire, but there is potential here.
The Tesseract Theatre company is presenting Cascade’s Fire as part of the New Musical Summer Fest 2024 at the Marcelle Theatre until July 28, 2024