Serial killers endlessly fascinate us, but rarely do they make their way onto the stage, unless for comic effect (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder). Talie Melnyk will remedy that when she brings her one-woman show Maison des Rêves, about crusading serial killer Madame Alexe Popova, to the Paradise Factory as part of the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity, May 14-June 8.
Between 1879 and 1909 in Samara, Russia, Alexe Popova engaged in a one-woman crusade against oppressive and abusive husbands, poisoning over 300 men for a small fee. After gaining a man's trust she would slip him a deadly draught, taking pride and, one suspects, even delight in "freeing unhappy wives from their tyrants." Finally turned in by a remorseful client after 30 years of this, Popova confessed to killing over 300 men.
Melnyk conceived the show as a way to combine her interests in true crime and in women's stories. A "tiny paragraph" on Popova in a book piqued her interest initially. Armed with an understanding of the murderer's sensibility and culture based on her own Ukrainian and Estonian heritage, Melnyk conceived Maison des Rêves. "What she did was so unique," she said in an interview for the production at least year's Frigid Festival in New York. "She wasn't just killing for the sake of killing, she was essentially helping women in her community that were being abused by their husbands…It's a unique story that I think needs to be told because this [domestic and sexual violence] is something that's still taking place today."
Serial killers are everywhere on screen, if fortunately somewhat less so in real life. Even it-man Bryan Cranston is playing one in an upcoming film. But for a serial killer story in the flesh, and centering on a very unusual killer, Maison des Rêves should be just the ticket.
Directing is Gretchen Cryer, well known for I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road, which she starred in and for which she wrote the book and lyrics (and which had a City Center Encores! revival just last year).
For tickets, please visit Planet Connections.
