Review #1 of 2: MIRROR LAKE by Steven Dietz, Jarrott Productions
by David Glen Robinson

Fear of the dark. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what’s outside. Fear of hunters. Fear of confinement. Fear of what’s in the box. Fear of your spouse. Fear of the fog. Fear of dark, murky waters . . . .These fears may seem archetypal, but they are only the playing pieces of the marital game Philip and Dinah play on their wedding anniversary every year, ten so far. 

 

Jarrott Productions has premiered Mirror Lake, a new play by Steven Dietz, at the Trinity Street Playhouse in downtown Austin. Caroline Cearley directs the play skillfully in her directorial debut. The play offers two experienced stage actors, Juliet Robb and Bryan Bradford; they, too, are first-timers with Jarrott Productions. Darkly toned, the play shines in its production quality and the high standards set by company leaders David R. Jarrott and Will Gibson Douglas. Playwright Dietz and his play are well served by their production.

 

 

Categories have little utility, but perhaps the term “suspense thriller with inflections of horror” is a reasonable combo label to affix. Philip (Bryan Bradford) and his wife Dinah (Juliet Robb) celebrate all their anniversaries with a game that takes months in preparation (travel, purchase of props and equipment, sneakin’ around) and culminates ritualistically on their anniversary with a grand terrifying fright of the targeted spouse. They alternate years on who first gets surprised. They call it giving each other “scares.” The shallow term pastes over the fact that they are dealing in each other’s fears, where treatment may or may not lead to healing. The premise is full of kink, and one suspects that this overelaborate marital game is Philip and Dinah’s attempt to shore up a marriage at risk of collapse. For ten years running? Seems desperate, but this is very much to playwright Dietz’s purpose. The playwright may have been influenced by LARPing, Live Action Role Playing, and wrote a private little LARP game for two married folks. 

 

Like moths to the flame, Philip and Dinah are drawn to a family cabin by a lake on their tenth anniversary. It has all been set-up to this point. The actors are brilliant dialogists and movers, Robb especially, and both characters follow the rules of the game scrupulously. The lighting design helps tell some of the story on the dark, sparely dressed Trinity Street Playhouse stage. This venue usally has a warm, comforting feel but not this time. MacKenzie Mulligan’s innovative lighting work carves vision out of the prevailing obscurity and is well worthy of award nominations. Technical director and scenic artist Daniel A. Hernandez must share in the credit for these complex designs. 

 

The text delves into two advanced psychological features, things deep in the psyches of each of the characters that most therapists cringe to contemplate. Dietz presents both in Mirror Lake. They are Recovered Memory Therapy (RMT) and Doppelganger syndrome. It suffices that both characters frighten each other and together frighten the audiences. Multiple announcements asked that the ending not be revealed to other potential audience members. Well, in fairness the last one-third of the play is not to be revealed. I honor the ban in full. Go see this play.

 

Into every play a little rain must fall. The set was almost bare, dressed in a few furniture props, no visual projections. Scenes were changed with lighting sets and actors in or out of character carrying prop pieces on or off stage. The text, therefore, carried the storytelling burdens of descriptions and complex plot turns and changes. Those in turn fell heavily on the dialogues of the characters. The needs of such were so demanding that there was a pronounced shift from showing to telling. A corner was turned, too, from naturalistic dialogue to relatively abstract description brought on by the need to get important plot features and changes correct. The actors were well up to the job, but a few scenes seemed stilted as a result. 

 

With its psychological depths, Mirror Lakeis a near-perfect Halloween season entertainment for adults. All the material is good for those about ten and older. The play runs until November 2, 2025 at Trinity Street Playhouse downtown. Recommended. 

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Mirror Lake
by Steven Dietz
Jarrott Productions

October 16 - November 2, 2025

Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2:30 pm

Trinity Street Playhouse, 4th floor, 901 Trinity Street, Austin