What I liked
The dialogue is whip-smart. Simple but effective lighting transitions clearly differentiate between the “real” world that all the characters live in and Eloise’s internal world, where we get physical manifestations of her obsessive thought spirals. And the relationship between the three sisters felt genuine and grounded in real love, even when they sometimes don’t particularly like each other.
What I didn't like
While I like that the play ends on an ambiguous note, the ending felt a bit sudden. SO much is revealed in the final third of the script (both about the sisters and their deceased mother), and there is comparatively little time given to grapple with it. Though I am a huge proponent of 90 minute, no intermission shows, this is a rare instance of a script that might benefit from a slightly longer runtime and an intermission to punctuate the middle of the action.
My overall impression
What most impressed me about OBSESSED was the production’s ability to immerse me, the audience member, into the fraught and often-spiraling mindset of its lead character, Eloise. Everything from the monologues to the staging to the dreamlike sequences helped translate an internal experience into something alive and tangible on stage.
