The Black Widow

The Black Widow
The Black Widow is a 1924 play written and produced by Tony Stark. One of his biggest hits so far, it is currently the main attraction on Stark Hall. With a modernist concept, it brings to life a non linear story about loss of free will and control. Though possibly a metaphor to victims of war - not only the american soldiers that came home wounded, but the people who had their country invaded - it also brings to light issues like sexism and sexual violence.

It's mostly played by only one actress and, different from most everything produced on Stark Hall before, the play relies much more on corporal expression than dialogue. There's a lot of dance and screaming involved. It's the most emotionally charged play the Stark Hall presented so far, extremely visceral and almost uncomfortable to watch.

It may or may not be slightly autobiographical.

(Hint: it totally is).

Plot
The play follows the story of a young woman that's been under mind control her whole life. The ones that brainwashed her are never really seem in the play, more like an invisible force, always following her, always watching her. Every time she tries to escape the mind control, she loses everything again to the point she herself starts to destroy all the good things in her life because it's the only form of control she can have.

She meets a man and falls in love, trying to run away with him, but he's killed in the snow by the same forces she's been under her whole life. Feeling like it's her own fault for knowing what kind of danger she brought him into, she feels like a black widow, a spider that kills her partner after mating. The woman then takes upon her own hands to break free from the cage they've locked her on. Since they made her a murder, she finally embraces the monster she has become and executes her revenge upon those who controlled her.

After executing the men that kept her under mind control - mere shadows suggested by stage tricks, she realizes she doesn't have anything else. In a symbolic final scene, the red snow in which she sits after the bloodbath starts being covered in white again as it keeps snowing.

Turns out the black widow doesn't kill the ones she gets involved with: she survives them.

Cast
Natalia Romanova as Black Widow

Critical Response
The response to Black Widow was extremely polar: love it or hate it, there isn't a middle ground. The play has been severely criticized by the more conservative segments due to its dark theme, its modernist approach and its supposedly critic to the war. It was also praised for the same reasons. It has received great critics by other artists. Some questioned the need of a russian main actress.

Some religious activists tried to get the play banned because of its apology to crime. They protested in the premiere outside the Stark Hall, but were mainly ignored.