Preview: Mercury at SLAC

Salt Lake Magazine | Jeremy Pugh | October 10, 2017

he fall production at Salt Lake Acting Company, Mercury, is a horror comedy fitting for this time of year. It opens, appropriately, on Friday the 13th.

(Actually, it’s a “co-world premiere,” the same play will be simultaneously opening at the Stray Cat Theater in Phoenix, Ariz., which is a thing strapped arts groups are doing now.)

Details are sketchy about this SLAC-described “horror comedy” where three intertwined plots collide with grimly hilarious (we hope) results. Outside of Portland, Oregon audiences will encounter an illicit affair, a couple hanging on by a thread, bears at the window, the worst curiosity shop on the west coast, and an adorable missing dog named Mr. Bundles.

“No one is happy, people stop being nice, and blood spills. This mash up of myth, missing ‘good neighbors’ explores what happens when the mercury rises,” SLAC’s press materials boast along with the promise that the production “brings things to the Salt Lake Acting Company stage that have never been seen before.”

Considering the things I’ve seen on that stage during Saturday’s Voyeur, this is an especially frightening statement.

“Mercury is a bloody valentine for theatre lovers,” says director Shannon Musgrave. “The demands of the script are an exciting challenge for directors, designers, and actors, and we have assembled a team that is tackling every single one with bold creativity. I am thrilled for audiences to see this play, which is as funny as it is sinister.”

There you have it. Sinister and funny, and certainly much better than one of those janky spook alleys around town. Go see plays.

Mercury opens this week with previews starting Oct. 11, and runs throughout the spooky season, concluding Nov. 12, 2017 at Salt Lake Acting Company, 168 West 500 North, SLC.