By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
photo by Bree Boyd
Cast members eye a glum future in "Savage Bond."
Maybe the truth can set you free, but it can also tie you in knots – especially if the truth is something you want to keep from friends and relatives. No doubt every Catholic priest for centuries has taken to his grave the personal secrets of parishioners that would have completely unraveled the community had these secrets become known.
But what if this particular counselor wasn’t a priest. What if he was just a normal kind of guy, who happened to know lots of other people’s secrets but had no particular professional, or moral, obligation to keep these secrets secret?
Such is the quandary pondered by playwright Steve Holiday in “Savage Bond,” which won the Arizona Theatre Company’s 2012 Arizona Playwriting Award.
At Beowulf Alley Theatre, Katherine Monberg directs an informal production which seems to gather menace for its folksiness, a sort of this-could-happen-to-anyone air that sounds about right.
It is the day before Thanksgiving, ironically enough, when six friends return for the funeral of a departed mutual friend. They feel like a modern-day version of the Magnificent Seven, gathering to protect their friend from threats of outside forces.
They also, each in a different way, feel relief that the possibility of a sinister secret being discovered has died, as well. All of them have told something very personal to this fellow at one time or another.
Imagine their collective horror discovering this beloved pal now passed away wrote a journal over the years that contained all these secrets.
Ooops.
Nobody wants to act too interested in the journal, lest it appear the journal might contain some embarrassing secret about them. On the other hand, they must decide if the friendships they have now are more valuable than the truth that would be in the journal.
What would you choose?
"Savage Bond" continues through Nov. 17 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, at Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave.
Tickets are $25 at the door, $23 online; students at the door and online, $10 . For details and reservations, 520-882-0555, or visit www.beowulfalley.org
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