Margin Notes: let's talk about anything else

let's talk about anything else

Seen on: Friday, 9/12/25.

Gabriella O'Fallon, Sadithi De Zilva, Ry Albinus, and
Caroline Portante as Beck, Charley, Enda, and Meg.
Photo by Mikiodo.

Plot and Background

The Other Side of Silence presents Anthony Anello's new play about a group of friends gathering at a remote cabin a year after their friend Abby's sudden death. But when strange visions and visitations awaken dormant guilt, things take a turn.

What I Knew Beforehand

I knew that it was billed as one of TOSOS's queer horror stories.

Thoughts:

I loved it. This production was a true pleasure, even when it was deeply and viscerally upsetting. Full of plot twists that feel both earned and startling, Anello's writing takes us on a journey full of broken and unreliable memories, struggles toward healing and wholeness, and the utter uselessness of trying to recreate something--or someone--dead and gone. Rosalie begins the play recounting a hallucination she suffered in the wake of Abby's death, as her anxiety gets the better of her. As the rest of the friends arrive, it becomes clear that, although they are ostensibly gathering in honor of Abby, Abby remains top of the list for topics not open for discussion, with Charley (who found her body) holding final veto power. Full of overlapping dialogue (is there a word for seven people talking at once?), pointed looks, and defiant dives into pleasure and oblivion, the characters process their individual griefs and guilts through ultimately less than successful methods. It is only when an outsider, Wes, arrives that the carefully crafted stories each character tells themself begin to collapse like a house of cards. And under all of this is the ghost at the feast: Abby isn't onstage but the gap she leaves behind is palpable, as she seemed to have somehow been the emotional support for each of her friends. My scribbled notes include such gems as "found Chekhov's gun!" and "The Men Are A Problem [with a box drawn around it]" (in my defense, the men in this play are absolutely a Problem). This play is hilarious and honest and upsetting and messy and gorgeous. I love when I get to review something this good.

Cast: It's rare to see an Off-Off play with a cast this size feel so utterly lived in. They each know each other so well--what the others will say, how they'll react. The relationship dynamics run deep in all their messy glory. As anxious Rosalie, Posie Lewis balances vulnerability against the threads of steel she wishes would straighten her (metaphorical) spine. Her boyfriend Pine, played by the understated Dylan Lesch, seems in contrast so weak and desperate for validation even while trying to support Roe through her own crises.  Gabriella O'Fallon, who plays Roe's ex Beck, keeps her cards close to the vest, trying to hide how laser focused her vision is on her former lover. Caroline Portante's ice queen Meg and Ry Albinus's insecure and gossipy Enda make an unlikely pairing: seemingly and perpetually at odds and yet reassuring each other that they will always have each other. Both Portante and Albinus perfectly embody their diametrically opposed characters without turning either into a cartoon or archetype. They are people carrying wounds and bearing armor, but also desperate for connection. And speaking of wounds, Sadithi De Zilva's Charley wears hers on her off-the-shoulder sweater sleeve, even as she thinks she's keeping them safe and protected from view. Brittle and defensive and hungry for forgiveness, she carries the heaviest guilt of them all, and refuses to share the load. And then there's Evan Clausen as the enigmatic Wes--a mix of disarming awkwardness and unnerving directness, he manages to toe the line needed to make this character work: off-putting but not so much so that it's unbelievable they'd invite him in.

Design: A play like this, with so many moving pieces, so many "jump cuts" from scenelet to scenelet, so many characters talking at once, doesn't work without a strong director at the helm. Dennis Corsi is up to the task, handling it all with such deceptive ease, you don't realize just how intricate the work is until you take a look at the script. Sculpting the story with Corsi is the gifted design team. From Ben Philipp's costume work that renders each character instantly recognizable without making them cartoons (of course Meg is the only one wearing coordinated pajamas), to Evan Frank's scenic design, a mix of the straightforward accoutrements of an Airbnb cabin and the more mysterious surrounding wood: deceptively sturdy cabin walls swaying against a ghostly array of naked tree trunks. Lighting designer Dominick Z. Riches and sound designer Morry Campbell collaborate to sculpt the uneasy edges of reality, from the sucking air sudden blackout scene changes to the isolating mysterious undertones when a character steps away from a scene to say the things they couldn't say to their friends. 

***

Running: Now playing at The Flea Theatre (The Other Side of Silence) - Opening: September 7, 2025. Closing: September 28, 2025.
Category: play
Length: 2 hours, 30 minutes, including intermission.

Creative Team

Playwright: Anthony Anello
Director: Dennis Corsi
Production Team: Barry Childs (Supervising Producer), Marty Goldin (Line Producer), Cat Gillespie (Assistant Director), Evan Joseph Frank (Set), Riley Elton McCarthy (Lighting), Ben Philipp (Costume), Morry Campbell (Sound), David Leeper (Fight Choreographer), Abby Fry (Stage Manager), Maddie McAuliffe (ASM/Props), Paul Siebold / Off Off PR (Press Representative).
Cast: Ry Albinus, Evan Clausen, Sadithi De Zilva, Dyan Lesch, Posie Lewis, Gabriella O'Fallon, Caroline Portante.

The cast of let's talk about anything else. Photo by Mikiodo.