underneathmybed

A prepubescent girl’s coming-of-age tale that borrows J-horror clichés while smuggling a hoary critique of U.S. foreign policy, Florencia Lozano's play—about a family of Argentine political dissidents in exile—fails to shock, scare or amuse. Thematic ingredients for a keen psychological horror story are here, but Lozano handles her material so clumsily, and director Pedro Pascal encourages the cast to perform so melodramatically, the action devolves into shouty, magical-realist mush.—David Cote