A Journey to the Other Side

The Wonder

Are you familiar with a paranormal occurrence that was dubbed “The Watseka Wonder”? Apparently, it’s part of Illinois history. One can learn about this series of incidents and experience the strange events through an ethereal, somewhat unsettling World Premiere by actress/playwright Maggie Lou Rader. The story may frighten, confuse or even inspire theatergoers to delve further into this factual, but almost forgotten, incident from the state’s past.

After the Civil War ended and Reconstruction was in full swing, a young woman in rural Watseka, Illinois began to experience unexplained seizures and blackout spells. Her name was Lurancy Vennum. As portrayed in Ms. Rader’s drama, Rancy, as she was called, was a fourteen-year-old handful for her mother, Lurinda. One day the child began to shake violently, fall to the floor writhing and screaming and eventually lose consciousness for hours or even days at a time. While possessed by these frightening trances, Rancy claimed she’d been to heaven and saw angels. She proclaimed that she was able to communicate with the spirits of the dead. Any number of physicians examined her and, since nothing physical could be found, the teenage girl was diagnosed with insanity.

Just as Rancy was about to be shipped off to an insane asylum, a neighbor paid the Vennum family a visit. Mr. Asa Roff, a devout follower of Spiritualism, told Mrs. Vennum that his daughter, Rose Roff, had suffered from the very same affliction more than a decade ago. The manifestations began when Rose was just an infant. As she grew older, they become more frequent and severe causing the young girl to also claim that she was able to speak to spirits. Once again, the doctors could find nothing that would cause the spells, so Rose was committed to an asylum. There she was medicated, hypnotized, chained to the wall and doused with freezing cold water, but Rose never recovered. Sadly, she died in the mental institution in 1865.

Mr. Roff now believed that his daughter wasn’t insane but was misunderstood and had actually been a medium with a special gift for contacting the dead. Roff persuaded the Vennum family to invite Spiritualist physician, Dr. E. Winchester Stevens, to examine Rancy. After going into another disturbing trance, the teenager claimed she was now possessed by the ghost of another young woman who promised to help her. When asked the ghost’s name, Rancy replied that she was Rose Roff. 

Although Rose wasn’t someone Rancy ever knew, and had died more than a decade earlier, the young girl could mysteriously tell intimate details about her life. She could relate personal secrets that Rose had once shared with only her parents. So, for the next five months, the Roff’s took Rancy into their home to live with them as their deceased daughter, Rose Roff.   

Possibly based upon the account published in 1879 by Dr. Stevens, or perhaps by a more recent book by Troy Taylor, Ms. Rader’s drama about spiritual possession is a bit scary, but also dream-like and poetic. At least that’s how the story plays out in this interesting production helmed by Director Gaby Labotka. They nicely set the story in motion, but then, disappointingly,  the pacing slows down. Too many pauses and the kind of searing  glances one sees in soap operas fill this two-hour presentation. A fascinating expressionistic scenic design, however, created by Daniel Houle, is mirrored in Labotka’s staging. They use modern dance movements and exaggerated gestures, performed by one or several of the cast members, to create the unsettling paranormal presence of spirits. At times, though, the production turns wild and histrionic. Combined with eerie lighting and interesting sound choices, courtesy of Lena Aubrey and Andrew Pond, the ethereal effects become present.

The talent of Labotka’s five actors varies. Sometimes it feels as if they’re in different plays. The best performance of the show, however, comes from Isabella Maria Valdes in the role of Rancy Vennum. This talented young actor is so skilled and completely natural in this demanding role that the audience believes in the reality of the bizarre events. Ms. Valdes’ excellent performance is the main reason to see this production. The rest of the cast, with the exception of lovely, eloquent Tina-Kim Nguyen, as Mary Roff, are simply too melodramatic. The actors portraying the adults in this play are either too exaggerated or simply come off as artificial. 

The characters and events of the Watseka Wonder have inspired several stories, books, films and at least one other play. Critics reviewing the case dispute the authenticity of it being a true supernatural event, citing epilepsy as the probable affliction of Rancy Vennum. But in Maggie Lou Rader’s play she captures one’s desperation when dealing with an unknown or untreatable illness. She also faithfully depicts the indescribable agony and sorrow a parent undergoes when burying a child. Tempered by the vaporous paranormal presence of ghosts and spirits, and the promise of life after death, Eclectic Full Contact Theatre’s first production since the pandemic is a tenuous, thought-provoking journey to the Other Side.       

Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented April 21-May13 by Eclectic Full Contact Theatre at The Edge Theatre, 5451 N. Broadway, Chicago.

Tickets are available in person at the box office or by going tinyurl.com/thewondertix

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.