By Myah Schultz & Sarah Schultz

In their latest venture, Theatre Elision combines new with old and avant garde with traditional. Grace McLean’s innovative and conceptual musical In the Green portrays two women grappling with darkness and finding light in a 12th century cell.

Lindsay Fitzgerald’s set design is extremely effective. A pale gray cloth draped across centerstage traps us in a monastic cell with our leads. Three ascending black frames create a spiraling tower with simple grace. Projection shines through the cloth to take us out of the cell and into green fields and cool rivers. Laina Grendle’s lighting subtly supports the narrative, bathing the audience in ominous reds or warming them with hopeful yellows to strike different emotional chords.

The vocals in this production are outstanding. Abilene Olson, Annie Schiferl, and Deidre Cochran blend seamlessly as they portray the fractured segments of Hildegard. All three performers have incredibly strong voices that compliment their specific roles without overpowering each other. The score is rife with strange, dissonant parts, which Olson, Schiferl, and Cochran nail with ease, creating a delicious tension.

Emily Hensley is a powerhouse as Shadow. She slinks about the stage, practically invisible for much of the production, but when she makes herself known, it’s impossible to look away. Her eerie, heartbreaking duet with Christine Wade as Jutta is a real showstopper; their voices weave together in an intricate dance, evoking fear, panic, despair.

Christine Wade’s Jutta anchors the show. Wade brilliantly embodies a tortured religious zealot trying to hold herself together with rigid rules and severe self deprivation. Wade makes it easy to empathize with Jutta despite her acerbity–we can see that she truly wants to help Hildegard but is limited by her own trauma. In addition, Wade expertly navigates the looping technology so integral to the orchestration. She makes a difficult task appear effortless while portraying a complicated character and perfectly executing labyrinthine vocal parts.

Theatre Elision artfully renders In the Green, making for theater experience both chilling and inspiring. The show runs through March 9th. Tickets additional information are available at www.elisionproductions.com.