Wildwood Park: Seduction & Obsession

Wildwood Park walks us through the painful steps of obsession as experienced by Ms. Haviland, (played by Maryth Gilroy), a realtor who has been both drawn into and repulsed by an incident in her hometown. Like a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, she has a very personal relationship with the home she's trying to sell and yet at the same time has far too much emotional attachment to part with.

The perspective buyer, Dr. Simian, (played by Jason Broadfoot), seems to wear a mysterious cloak, and waffles from menacing in one moment to almost normal in the next. He both frightens and seduces Ms. Haviland.

The home has a story to tell and we almost don't want to hear it. We only want to embrace the beauty and spaciousness, the details in the architecture, the grandness of it that we only see in our mind's eye, without knowing what happened there and why the occupants are no longer living there.

We tour the home and with each room the tentacles that hold Ms. Haviland so tightly that she can barely breathe are loosened by the calm, creepy charm of Dr. Simian. We sense her desperation and her surrender to Dr. Simian.

The premise offers qualities that I'd like to have seen explored more thoroughly and authentically.

Directed by Michael Fera
Playwright: Doug Wright.
Running time 40 minutes.