Ice

Using metaphors about the different states of water, the play Ice draws the audience in with its complexity. Set in an interrogation room, Ice has three protagonists—two detectives and a teenager. From the perspective of the audience, one can only see the detective, but from the lines that he speaks, the audience is able to make out that an 18 year-old has been arrested as the suspect in a murder as body parts are discovered. The teenager’s story and how we perceive that teenager become entirely dependent on the detective’s words. As such, the play requires the audience to pay close attention and excellent acting from those playing the detectives. The audience begins to envision the handsome art student that the detective is supposedly talking to and he almost becomes a tangible presence. In defense of the director, having a character that never appears in the flesh from beginning to end is a bold move, but not necessarily a good one. Whenever one of the detectives talks for too long, it feels as if he’s delivering a lonely monologue. For a brief moment, the two detectives appear together and the performance becomes almost captivating for a short time. With the flickering light against the teenager’s ghost-like presence and the set being fully employed, the audience is left on the edge of their seats till the very end.