Seen on: Friday, 9/12/25.
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| 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.
