Review by James Wilkinson

‘This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing’ – Written by Finegan Kruckemeyer. Directed by Marta Rainer. Set Design: Janie E. Howland. Sound Design: George Cooke. Costume Design: Chelsea Kerl. Lighting Design: Bridget Doyle. Fight Director: Sarah Flanagan. Presented by Wellesley Repertory Theatre at the Ruth Nagel Jones Theater at Wellesley College June 5-30, 2019.

Wellesley Repertory Theatre would like to tell you a story. It’s a story about a trio of sisters and the adventures they had. There are Vikings and far-away lands. There are friendly woodland critters and curmudgeonly lighthouse keepers. There are whole towns moving under the power of a team of thirty horses and entire cities of people who have never seen the sun or danced a two-step jig. There’s a whole wide world explored before finally returning to the comfort of home. All of this and more can be found in Finegan Kruckemeyer’s play This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing now in production at Wellesley Rep. If any of the above sounds like it belongs in a tale by the Brother’s Grimm, that’s by design. Kruckemeyer’s play draws heavily from a number of classic fairytale sources, proudly wearing those inspirations on its sleeve. I have to say, though, that a few days after having seen the production, I’m struggling to decide just how successful the whole thing is. It’s not that the production doesn’t have charm (it does) and it’s not that the quality of the artistic team is deficient in any way (it’s not). It’s that given the subject matter, the production just didn’t spark the sense of wonder that I wanted it to and which had me leaving the theater feeling unfulfilled.

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